Zero Jigen Monogatari Drive
by Epsilon Zeta
Summary: The Ragnarok of the Goddesses in the Critical Moment is unfolding. But even with the heavy pressure, Tennouboshi Uzume will believe in her instincts and search for the beginning with a little help from three dimensionally displaced characters.
1. She's Still Dreaming

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **First Level – She's Still Dreaming**

There was a certain irony when it came to Daichi's name.

His given name was supposed to mean large intellect but that didn't really materialize in the way that his parents hoped for. Instead of excelling at academic studies, he had excelled in sports instead, being very active in physical activities. At first, his parents didn't mind since he had the potential to become a superstar athlete. After all, top players in the NPB earned multi million Yen salaries, good to support aging parents and a family.

But instead, he turned his energy towards suit acting and studying on how to be a good stunt performer. There was something that had simply fascinated him with the ways that the people behind those suits used body language to help breathe life into their characters. It was especially evident in that one Kamen Rider Den-O and Decade movie where all the Imagins including Sieg were sharing Ryotaro's body for Den-O's Super Climax Form. In a sense, he did regret not watching more toku shows when he had the chance but sports club activities and cram school often ate up his time as a student. All he could catch were the occasional toku movies that aired on TV once in a while.

Obviously, his relationship with his mother soured on that decision since suit actor salaries were nowhere near as high compared to a player in the NPB. His father was a bit more neutral on the choice and at the least congratulated Daichi on pursuing his own dream despite the lack of financial security. From the day he graduated high school, he worked several part time jobs to support himself as he went through the lengthy process of becoming a member of Japan Action Enterprises.

Now at the age of 20, he got a big break and became the suit actor understudy for Mr. Kamen Rider himself, Mr. Takaiwa. That meant learning a lot of the unique poses and postures that the main protagonist would use in the latest Kamen Rider show, Kamen Rider Drive. In the event that Seiji would not be able to make it in, then Daichi can step in and fill in the role temporarily. After all, toku shooting schedules could be pretty jam packed, especially when filming for the main TV show can overlap with filming for a movie, a music video, promo material or a DVD special.

For today, since Takaiwa is off filming scenes for the upcoming summer movie, Daichi would be doing some transformation poses for the upcoming Drive Hyper Battle DVD. A lot of this was going to be repetitive since it just involved him inserting a new Shift Car into the Brace and then holding a position for a few seconds and with the number of Shift Cars currently running, it would obviously take time to go through the collection.

"We'll be resuming in five!"

Daichi heard the producer's assistant yell that out and started heading back to the set now that he finished getting rehydrated again. He stopped in front of a mirror to make sure that his suit was in order. His top was covered in red armour that greatly resembled a car. The centre of the upper torso armour had a tire with a red line on it placed in the middle, which gave him more of a racer feature. He wore a black bodysuit with white lines that ran down his arms and legs, wore red boots, silver knee pads, red gauntlets, and silver wrist bands. The brace occupied the left band and there was a red line over it unlike the right which showed more of the silver. The shoulders were protected by pointed pads and he wore red chest armour that had a black line across it.

His helmet greatly resembled that of a car, as it was colored red with two white lines that left a thin blue line that was hardly noticeable. The eyes were that of a car's headlights and he had a silver "R" on the forehead. The top of his head had a rear wing giving him more of that race car feature, complete with a silver mouthpiece. Attached to his waist was the main Rider belt for the season, officially known as the Drive Driver and Mr. Belt, and a holder for three shift cars: Midnight Shadow, Funky Spike and Max Flare.

'Alright, everything is all set…?' Daichi looked closely at the mirror and spotted that his orange Shift Car was no longer in place on his waist. 'I dropped one? Ah, geez…!'

He didn't have much time before shooting resumed and if he recalled correctly, the next Shift Car pose would be with Max Flare. That made it really important that he find the little vehicle and soon!

'Stay calm… where was I last at? Washroom break and then to the water cooler…' His eyes then located the small orange car lying on the ground close to the leg of a chair. 'There we go!'

Just as he bent down to pick it up, he spotted something odd. Rather than the standard flame logo on the toy hood, the logo looked like an orange spiral. It reminded him of an old game console owned by an older cousin of his in Odaiba. 'What was that console's name again?'

" _H…e…"_

Daichi nearly dropped the prop when he heard that faint whisper that sounded like a girl's voice. 'What was that? Where did it come from?'

" _H…e…l…"_

He looked down at the small toy in his hands. If he was hearing things correctly, the whisper was coming from the Shift Car.

" _H…e…l…p…"_

It was the last thing he heard before his entire vision got swallowed up by light.

* * *

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying down in the middle of a big pile of stone debris. As soon as he got up, he took a quick glance of his surroundings which showed that instead of being in a studio, he was in some apocalyptic wasteland with a dark sky that had flashes of lightning dancing in the clouds, destroyed buildings all around and the noises of ravens cawing in the distance. 'Did the set change this much? And why am I changed?'

Daichi clearly remembered wearing the Drive suit before the strange incident happened. Now he was back in his street clothes consisting of a basic dark t-shirt and jeans. For some odd reason, his left wrist still wore the Shift Brace while the Drive Driver was stuck on his waist.

He didn't have time to think about it much further as he suddenly found himself face to face with some unknown mechanical creature that popped up around the corner. It was largely in a humanoid shape built out of a grey metallic alloy while some of the upper decorations and the main monoeye were red in colour. It was also pretty big, probably around twice the size of an average human. Without hesitating, he quickly began running to get away from that thing and as he expected, the machine began to pursue. 'What's going on?!'

He must have run for about two minutes until he heard a female voice in the distance shout to him. "You over there! Duck!"

Moving on instinct, he dived to the ground while a girl leapt above him and landed a powerful kick in the machine's main red optic. She followed this up with several punches, accentuating each one with a loud kiai, before landing one last blow through a finishing move by a megaphone to turn the enemy into scrap to Daichi's amazement. 'Holy crap… how did she do that?!'

As soon as she recovered from the quick skirmish, she turned around to address him. "Hey, you there!"

"M-me?" This time, he managed to get a better look at her. His saviour turned out to be a fair-skinned girl with red-orange eyes and long, sanguine hair worn in pigtails located near the bottom of her head, held by hair that has been knotted. It has a few black clasps and a pink gradience nearing the bottom. Her outfit was rather skimpy for this type of environment. She had a very small black tube top under an opened white jacket with a bright orange, black, and white tie which had a strange looking spiral logo near the end that reminded him of the spiral he saw on the Shift Car earlier. She also had a pair of pleated shorts worn with a pair of thin black suspenders and open to reveal her orange underwear. Her arms were covered with orange and black sleeves with a pair of black fingerless gloves at the end. Finally, she had matching socks, black shoes and a pair of black leg warmers with buttons on them. Her right hand carried a megaphone with her and attached to her left wrist was some sort of small device, presumably a wrist communicator of sorts by the way it looked.

"Are you okay? Any injuries?" asked his rescuer.

"I am definitely not okay! What's going on here?!"

The girl ignored him to quickly inspect him. "Good, you seem fine. You're on your feet after all."

"That doesn't answer my question!" protested Daichi.

"Do yourself a favour and find a place to stay safe! Then you can worry about how the world is coming to an end! I'm gonna search for more survivors!" The young stuntman didn't get a chance to ask more questions as the girl ran off. He stood there alone for a moment and began muttering under his breath.

"Please tell me I'm dreaming. That I just passed out from the heat during the shoot!"

" _This is no dream_."

Daichi looked down at the object around his waist. Just by the way the 'face' looked alive and the fact that the device was definitely the source of that smooth talking voice that spoke to him in English led to the conclusion that he was no longer wearing a TV show prop. "No way…"

" _Yes way_. A pleasure to meet you, Daichi," said the smooth and deep voice of Mr. Belt.

"How did you become real? That shouldn't be possible!"

"Considering that you just saw that young lady perform superhuman feats in front of your eyes, shouldn't you be able to consider the possibility that I might come to life in this world? But enough of that. We have other problems to worry about."

"Like how to get back home?" asked Daichi.

"To be honest, the fact that you were brought here likely means that there's a task you must complete before you can return back to your world," concluded the device. "Perhaps you are to assist that girl in saving this world?"

"Come to think of it, I recall hearing a female whispering for help when I picked up that thing up," recalled the young man. "But still, this is ridiculous! I'm a stuntman, not a superhero!"

"You don't need to be a superhero to do what's right," countered Mr. Belt.

"There's a difference between doing the right thing and getting involved in a battle with superhuman participants," remarked Daichi in a flat tone.

"Then you will need to get the proper tools to join those battles," said the belt without missing a beat.

"Wait, what?"

Before Mr. Belt could explain further, he heard that girl's shouting again. This time, it was mixed in with the noises of a fight. Without wasting time, he moved over there as fast as he could towards the sounds of the battle and eventually spotted his rescuer locked in combat with another girl wielding a wooden katana. The other girl had short lilac hair with bangs that reach down to her collar bone and purple eyes. A pair of white hair-clips in the shape of D-pads was in her hair and around her neck is a choker that has a light blue D-pad symbol on it. Her top consisted of a mostly white hoodie dress that has a light purple hood, strings that look like controller plugs, and two huge purple and white pockets with purple D-Pad symbols on them. The sleeves have two light blue strips going all the way down while the front of the hoodie only contains one. The ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the hoodie have dark and light purple stripes. The zipper emblem and the back of the hoodie have a purple letter "N". As for her legs, they were covered with light blue and white striped thigh high socks with frills at the tops and her shoes are purple and blue.

"Che…! You're strong… the name's Tennouboshi Uzume! Who the hell are you?!" At least now Daichi had a name that went with his rescuer.

"Neptune! I'm Neptune!"

"Nepucchi… that's a freaking hard name to pronounce!"

"I get that all the time!" Neptune moved back and avoided another attack from Uzume's megaphone.

"Despite your appearance, you aren't bad! After my last warmup, you'll be a good target!"

"Why won't you listen?! Even though we were suddenly dragged into this mystery world…!" exclaimed Neptune.

"Unfortunately for you…" Uzume leaned back to launch another kick at the girl. "I ain't so easily convinced! You're not deceiving me with that human form!"

Neptune merely blocked the attack and tried to lock the other girl down. "I told you that I'm not an enemy! Listen to me! If you don't, then even I, the friendliest person in Gamindustri, will get angry!"

"Game…?" Uzume broke off and reset her stance. "I can't make sense of this! Prepare yourself!"

And that was when Daichi quickly ran in front of the two combatants at the same time as another lilac haired girl did the same, this time sporting longer locks than Neptune. Speaking as one, they both shouted.

"STOP!"

"Eh?" Uzume's eyes darted towards the male. "You again?"

"Please stop this, both of you!" exclaimed the long haired lilac girl. Her appearance was similar to Neptune's with long purple hair and a single D-pad hair clip in it. Her eyes were also violet eyes. She wore a white, button up sailor uniform with purple designs and a yellow ribbon being held together by the N-emblem. Her legs were covered by thigh high socks with pink and white stripes and medium sized boots that match her uniform in color scheme.

Neptune spotted Daichi and grinned. "Hey, we have a featureless male insert character here! Just like in Noire's side game!"

"Onee-chan, what are you talking about? He's not featureless!" scolded the other purple haired girl. "He has his black hair done in a buzz cut! It's not exactly something you see every day!"

"That's true, Nepgear. And he has a little bit of facial hair on his chin. A neat little goatee there!" She paused for a moment as she recognized something. "Neppu! We just gave a description of the original character to the readers! The author is probably going 'Just as _keikaku_!' right now!"

'… what?' Daichi had no idea what was going on while Nepgear turned towards the red haired girl.

"Um… Uzume-san, right? Just as my sister said, we have no intention of fighting with you. To be honest, we were hoping you can help us so can you please listen first?"

"That's right, that's right!" added Neptune. "We are extremely troubled right now!"

"Onee-chan, what competition are you trying to start now?!"

"S-sorry…" Neptune merely laughed nervously.

Nepgear then noticed the young man's presence. "And you are…?"

"Uh, I'm Yagami Daichi."

"Now I see. We actually got our first quest shortly after landing in this world once we did our obligatory tutorial battle. And that's to deliver this little item to the first male character we see that's not an NPC," chirped Nepgear before stopping in front of Daichi and placing a small item, a Shift Car mostly black in colour with purple headlights and white circuit lines drawn on the hood, into his hand. "That means you, Daichi-san."

Mr. Belt took on a look of surprise. "That Shift Car…!"

And with that exchange done, a small bottle suddenly appeared in front of Nepgear and landed in her hand. She then spun around and struck a pose. "Item GETTO!"

"Whatcha get?" asked Neptune.

"It's just a Detoxin. Still, you never know when it can be handy…" Nepgear placed it away in her inventory just as they heard beeping getting louder followed by three of those same machines encountered by Daichi entering the area.

Uzume snorted once. "Still being targeted? Che… you three, I'm going to deal with this first!"

"Good call! We'll wipe them out quickly and get back to figuring this mess out!" Neptune readied her own weapon while Nepgear pulled out a beam saber.

But just as the trio of girls leapt into action, the lead enemy shifted position slightly before shooting out a red energy field that caused everything in the area to slow down, much to Uzume's shock. "W-what?!"

'What's with this Matrix feeling?!' thought Neptune as she flailed around slowly.

"This feeling… it can't be!" Mr. Belt's face took on a look of horror. "Slowdown!"

"Wait, what?! They're facing one of those Roidmudes?!" asked Daichi, feeling extremely uneasy about the situation. Because of the black Shift Car in his possession, he was unaffected.

"It may not necessarily be a Roidmude. The enemy could simply have Core Driviars in their possession! In any case, you need to transform with Proto Drive's Shift Car so you can help fight!"

"I told you that I'm a stuntman and not a superhero!" Despite his complaining, his right hand moved towards the ignition switch of his belt. "But I don't leave my debts unpaid! And I owe Uzume-san there big for saving me earlier! Let's do this!"

 _ **START YOUR ENGINE!**_

After turning on the switch, the standby music began playing from the belt while he moved the Shift Car from his left hand to his right. He flicked the end of the Shift Car to shift it to Lever Mode and inserted it into the Shift Brace, just like all the times he had practiced doing those actions in the suit. Except this time, he was transforming for real. "Henshin!"

One pump of the lever later, pieces of armour materialized into reality and formed over his body. Once again, he was in the Drive suit but instead of having a tire on his chest and red upper torso armour, he had black armour showing bits of circuitry with no tire. This form was the one used by Kamen Rider Proto Drive and technically boasted weaker base statistics compared to the normal Drive. But for now, this would be sufficient.

 _ **DRIVE! TYPE… SPEED!**_

'I… actually transformed?!' He stared at his new form while the speedy jazzy music finished playing.

"Hurry and summon our comrades to help the girls out!"

"Comrades…?" Upon hearing his belt's words, he stretched out his left arm in front of him by instinct. This caused three miniature roads to appear behind him and direct themselves at the girls, dropping off a Shift Car for each of them and negating the Slowdown effect.

"Wah! I'm back to normal?" Nepgear felt an object in her hand and saw a purple item shaped similar to the item she passed on to Daichi.

"Ladies, the Shift Car will protect you from the effects of the Slowdown," explained Mr. Belt. "Make sure that it stays on your body so you can move normally within the field."

"Is that so?" Uzume held up an orange Shift Car and grinned. "Thanks!"

"Oi! Why is mine spiky and green? It reminds me of a durian which is all stinky!" complained Neptune from the side, holding up her Shift Car.

"Maybe it's because you can be all stinky sometimes! Just like when you put me through all that stuff in Plutia's dimension!" snapped Nepgear. Sure she may have forgiven her sister to some extent but don't think she would let her forget any time soon.

"Ahaha… sorry?"

"Girls, stay focused," said Daichi as he took a position to engage the enemy. "And as for you oversized tin cans, you might want to fasten your seatbelts."

The optics on his helmet lit up in response to the young man readying himself for a fight.

"I'm about to take you for a ride."

 **LEVEL 1 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **Wow, I seriously suck. I mean, I have other Rider stories that I could be and should be working on and yet my muse decides to steer me in another direction and assemble this together. Seriously, argh.**

 **I hope I got the feel for Neptune and Nepgear right. I have yet to actually play an entry for this series and I don't know if I really want to invest the time for it right now. Maybe later though since it seems quirky enough.**

 **As Daichi levels up, he will gain access to his normal Type Speed form and other Types as well as unlock more Shift Cars and weapons. It will be a gradual process so there is no need to worry about him getting Type Deadheat or Formula quickly.**

 **As for who would be filling in other roles from Drive, who knows? I don't have too many ideas for them at this point since this is only in the very early stages and this isn't going to be a particularly high priority story for me.**


	2. This Rider is an Achiever!

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Second Level - This Rider is an Achiever!**

"Seriously, this is weird!" pondered Neptune while watching out for one of the robot's giant swords on its right arm.

"Is now really a good time to start complaining, Onee-chan?!" Nepgear squeaked as she dove underneath an energy beam attack.

"Well, we're not taking turns!" As the robot slammed the ground to send debris flying towards her, Neptune raised her trusty wooden katana to slice the stone pieces. "It's real time combat! Wow, how does that Sora kid keep having all this energy to do this? I can go for some pudding and a nap now!"

"You have freaking silly priorities, Neppuchi!" growled Uzume while continuing her approach so she could unleash her megaphone's special ability. With her taking on one robot solo and the lilac haired siblings tag teaming another, that left the lead machine for Proto Drive, who currently was having a mental crisis.

'Sure, I say all that badass stuff but I am way out of my league for this!'

In his line of work, stunts were very carefully coordinated with safety in mind so that everyone can go home at the end of the day after a hard day's work. Here, the displaced stuntman has to improvise everything. As for his fighting skill, he only had some basic training from Japan Action Enterprises so he could use those skills when working with the fight choreographer during filming.

Before he could move, a mini pop up window appeared in his vision.

 **ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "Start Your Engine!"**

 **Description - Transformed into a Kamen Rider**

'What the…?!'

Thanks to being temporarily distracted by that window, the lead machine's arm slammed into his black armoured torso, sending him tumbling back.

"Daichi, what are you doing?! Stay focused!" came Mr. Belt's voice. "Proto Drive's Armour isn't fully completed so you can't afford to take too many hits like that!"

"Alright! Okay… one thing at a time… keep moving and don't let those things hit me!" Daichi got to his feet and just as the giant arm that attacked him earlier came in for another attack, he rolled beneath it, emerging on the other side safely. He then began darting back to draw the machine further away from the others and keep it focused on him.

"I see it!" exclaimed Mr. Belt.

"Huh?! WHOA!" He found himself jumping back quickly as the ground exploded in front of him when his attacker fired a laser blast where he had been previously standing. The attack left slabs of concrete piled up together and some uneven ground that caused the attacking machine to fall down to its knees due to advancing too quickly and not factoring in the damaged surface. "What do you mean?"

"The Core Driviar! It's embedded in the red sensor up there!" Looking up, Daichi could see the faint outline of a small component resembling a car engine through the red monoeye.

"So, we need to attack that point?"

" _Exactly!_ " said the device in English before talking normally again. "If possible, try to retrieve the Core Driviar without any damage! That way, we can put it to good use!"

"In that case, I'll have to try and see if I can break that glass!" Daichi placed his hand on his belt's ignition again and twisted it before moving to the Shift Brace to pump the lever three times.

 _ **SP-SP-SPEED!**_

Moving on instinct, he rushed towards the fallen machine as it tried to regain balance and began pummeling the red monoeye as hard as he could with his fists, slowly causing a small crack to spread out across the surface.

"Holy jumping jacks! He's punching so fast!" Neptune frowned as something else came to her. "He needs to be going 'ATATATATATATA—WATAHHH!'"

"At least he's taking off some of that thing's HP, right?" asked Nepgear while in the middle of her combo attack to turn her enemy's legs into scrap metal.

'One more oughta do it!' With all of his effort, Daichi threw his right fist forward one last time to smash through the red glass and grab the Core Driviar just before the machine got back on its legs, now disoriented thanks to the sensor damaged from Proto Drive's attack.

 **ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "Rider with a Killer Combo!"**

 **Description - Get a 12 Hit Combo**

'Man, again?!' That achievement window thing was getting on his nerves. If that thing popped up again during a crucial moment, then he would be screwed. "How's everyone else doing?"

"It's just cleanup now," commented Mr. Belt as the lilac haired sisters had just finished their enemy and were getting into their victory pose. The same went for Uzume. "You're the last one."

"Give me a break, Belt-san!" complained Daichi.

"In any case, let's finish this."

"Ah, right." After triggering the belt's Advanced Ignition, he pressed the Igniter button on the Shift Brace and lifted the Shift Car, pumping it for a boost in strength.

 _ **HISSATSU! FULL THROTTLE! SPEED!**_

After getting into a starting pose, he began running towards the remaining machine and leapt high into the air before extending his right leg for a kick attack, just like in the footage he saw of Proto Drive when he had been on an orientation tour in the studio. Gravity then took effect to bring him down and the momentum he built up allowed his leg to smash through the external frame and take him all the way through to the other side.

His landing could have been a bit better but that didn't matter to him. What mattered was that he survived the fight, leaving his enemy toppling over before it exploded. Thankfully the explosion was contained within a certain area and didn't send shrapnel flying towards the other girls.

 **ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "Shift into Top Gear!"**

 **Description – Defeat an enemy with a Full Throttle Finisher Attack**

'This thing is going to be the death of me,' thought Daichi in irritation as another larger popup window appeared in his vision.

 **ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "I will protect everyone!"**

 **Description – Complete a battle with no members of your party KOed**

 _ **Battle Result:**_

 _ **Combo Hits: 12 *New Record!***_

 _ **Experience gained: 129 EXP**_

 _ **Credits Gained: 154**_

 _ **Items Found: 1 x Core Driviar-N**_

"Oi, what's this? No FMV sequence for your finishing move? Sheesh, someone's obviously watching their budget closely! Not that I blame them though…" When he looked up, he spotted Neptune approaching him.

"So you're the God around here?" asked Nepgear, much to Mr. Belt's confusion.

"… God?"

"Hm… he's got that outer space look on him. A Space God!" exclaimed Neptune.

"To be honest, another image comes to mind when I think of a Space God. I get the image of someone wearing a daimyo costume with the image of a fruit basket on his torso armour," commented Mr. Belt.

"…" Thankfully, the awkward silence didn't last long with a certain redhead rejoining the group.

"So you two are really humans, huh? Well, sorry for not believing you earlier," came Uzume's rough apology as she put her megaphone away.

"Ah… thank goodness you understand!" said Nepgear in relief.

The redhead crossed her arms. "But it's strange… based on his last report; he told me there were no more humans in the city after I helped Daichi out. I guess you showed up after he scanned the area."

"That must be it. I'm Nepgear by the way," said the other girl as she held out her hand for Uzume to shake.

"Huh… then I'll just call ya Geacchi."

"...Geacchi. Geacchi, eh...Tee-hee... it's the first time I've been called with a nickname." With that settled, Nepgear turned her attention to Proto Drive, just as the Shift Cars that had been lent out earlier returned to him. "Still, I find it weird that you were able to transform while we weren't, Daichi-san. Are you tapping into shares in a different way?"

"Shares? What are you talking about?" asked Daichi.

"Hold on a second! Why aren't you using that deep voice of yours?" called out Neptune.

"Huh?"

"You've transformed, right? So you should be using your deep voice right now! It's just like how when I transform, my sexy voice causes all the fanboys to jizz in their pants!"

Uzume's face instantly turned into one of disgust. "Did you really have to use that analogy, Neppuchi?"

"Oh… that deep voice there wasn't mine," explained the stuntman, finally understanding what they meant.

"It was me," finished Mr. Belt causing the other girls to freak out.

"That belt…!" Neptune was pointing a finger towards it in surprise.

"It just talked!" exclaimed Uzume, just as shocked.

"It's super duper amazing! Ohmigosh ohman ohwow!" As for Nepgear, her eyes turned starry and sparkly before she moved herself forward and stopped right in front of Mr. Belt's face. "Um… Belt-san? Can I…?"

"Hm?"

"... Can I take you apart to see how you work?!"

Immediately, his 'face' turned into a frowny one, complete with annoyed eyes. "Absolutely not!"

"Pretty please?" Nepgear was pouring on the 'puppy dog eye' look to maximum effect but Mr. Belt wasn't going to have any of that.

"Madam, what part of 'Absolutely Not' did you fail to comprehend?"

She immediately switched strategy and looked up at Daichi with those puppy dog eyes. "Please, Daichi-san! You have to let me look at Belt-san and dismantle him!"

"Well…" Geez, those doe-like eyes were seriously distracting but he kept his head focused. "I can't just let you have Belt-san. Otherwise, I can't transform and fight."

"Eeehhh…?! Well, I can protect you personally! I'll work as your bodyguard!"

"Wow, Geacchi is really pulling out all the stops," muttered Uzume while Neptune laughed sheepishly.

"You can't be everywhere at once. Besides, since we know that the enemies have access to these things…" He held up the retrieved Core Driviar. "... and we need to keep the Shift Cars and Belt-san on hand in order to move around that Slowdown."

"... aw, phooey." She finally gave up, now seeing that this wasn't the time for her to be examining Mr. Belt.

"Now we have that over with…" Daichi paused as another window opened up.

 **ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "Moe Resistance: S-Rank!"**

 **Description – Don't let those puppy dog eyes sway you!**

"Wow, you get an achievement for ignoring my sister's puppy dog eyes?" asked Neptune.

"Wait, you can see these things…?" He trailed off as more information came flying in.

 **ACHIEVEMENT MILESTONE REACHED! Check Your Map.**

'What map?' Just as that thought passed through his head, his helmet optics lit up again and displayed a holographic map for the other girls, indicating a specific spot.

"What is that? Is that where we need to trigger the next event?" asked Neptune.

"Hm… if there's something special there, we should check it out. I hope it's not too far out of the way for you though," added Nepgear while glancing to Uzume.

"Nah, it's along the route I would take to head back to my home base. We can swing by for a second."

"Okay… that was a freaky experience," muttered Daichi to himself as the map turned itself off and his helmet optics returned to normal. "Seriously, what's with this place? It's like I'm in a video game."

"Daichi-san, let's go!"

Hearing Nepgear call out to him snapped him back to reality. He would have to try and make sense of things later. "Coming!"

* * *

The trip was rather uneventful. It was a simple straight path towards the spot that was pointed out on the map. The only things that Daichi found odd were Neptune and Nepgear whacking apart debris on occasion as if scouring for items. Heck, both of them even shouted 'JAMPU!' every time they jumped.

"So what are we looking for?" asked Uzume while trying to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.

"Wait a second! Lemme check my radar!"

"What radar?" Daichi didn't see Neptune take out anything. Was she seeing something in her head just like how he saw those status screens?

"I spy with my radar's eye… an unexplored area!" She immediately pointed to a large hole in the ground, large enough for someone to slip through.

Uzume frowned. "That wasn't there before when I passed through here. Did another battle happen that I wasn't aware of?"

"Who knows? But in any case, let's get down there! Hopefully, it won't be crawling with a lot of mook enemies!" chirped Neptune cheerfully.

The party made their way over and carefully lowered themselves down into the hole before landing in a dimly lit open space with some damaged columns. From the design of the space due to the painted lines, it looked like that this was used as an underground parking garage.

"An underground area? Maybe some other humans were hiding here as well!" Uzume began fiddling around with her communicator. "Umio, do you read me?"

Nothing but static.

"Reception is probably bad here. Let's just get what we came here for and return to the surface as quickly as we can," suggested Mr. Belt.

"I don't know if it'll be that easy. Static reception is usually a sign that we're getting into another scary encounter or a boss battle!" exclaimed Neptune.

"Stop kidding around," grumbled Daichi while keeping an eye out for anything unusual. But as he scanned around, the Shift Cars on his waist started acting up and took off on their own in a single direction while honking and beeping.

Nepgear looked alarmed at their behaviour. "Wait, where are you guys going?!"

"We should follow them!" Acting on Mr. Belt's words, the group kept track of the Shift Cars until they finally arrived in front of something: a black, two door sports car. Unfortunately for the party, there were only two seats so there was no way everyone could fit inside. Not too far away, they could see the keys to the vehicle close to some dried blood on the pavement and a rotting corpse.

"Shit…! Another life lost to those monsters!" growled Uzume while Daichi retrieved the keys. Just as he did that though, another window popped open.

 **Rider Machine Blueprints Unlocked!**

"Wait, I gotta build this thing?!" screeched the stuntman in pure dismay.

"Have no fear, Daichi," said Mr. Belt calmly while the component list began displaying. "I have memories of how I built the Tridoron in the first place. If the components are procured, then we can modify the machine fairly quickly for our needs."

 **Tridoron Components List:**

 **1 x 1992 Honda NSX**

 _1 x Core Driviar-T_

 _2 x Tires_

 _1 x Bi-Directional Circuit_

 _1 x Laser Cannon_

"Bi-Directional Circuit?" asked Nepgear.

"It's something that can help me sync to Tridoron and drive it remotely if needed. It also allows the Tridoron to sync with the Type Wild and Type Technic Shift Cars and take on additional forms as needed," explained Mr. Belt while reviewing the other items. "Hm… is there any further information available?"

Daichi tapped on the blinking '!' sign near the top right hand corner of the window before further information showed up.

 _A Core Driviar-T can be synthesized by combining 5 Core Driviar-Ns._

 _Laser Cannon and Bi-Directional Circuit can be looted from the Military Base._

'What military base?' Just as that thought passed through his head, the ground began to rumble which startled the party.

"Neppu! What was that?!"

"… can that be…?!" Uzume immediately dashed back through the opening in which the party came from earlier with the others following her shortly after. Just as soon as they reached the empty street, a grim smile came to the redhead's face. "Looks like those guys are back."

In the distance, they could spot a large ball of purple light descend on the city, landing in the area and destroying many buildings in the vicinity. In a second, the light dissipated to reveal a large woman in black and purple armour with a height of approximately 30 metres. Her head gear consisted of an opening to reveal her lower face and her mouth along with a red visor to protect her eyes and the red 'Power On' symbol on top of her forehead. As soon as she rose to her full height, she flared energy wings, sending debris scattering in all directions.

"W-w-w-w-w-w-what's with that thing?!" exclaimed Neptune with a horrified expression.

"Those things just suddenly appeared here," answered Uzume quietly. "They're the ones responsible for wrecking this world and destroying everything they lay eyes upon. I absolutely won't forgive those Goddesses!"

"Neppu?! Wait a second! Did you say…?" Neptune trailed off, leaving it for her sister to pick up.

"Did you say Goddesses, Uzume-san?"

As for Mr. Belt, he listened carefully to the conversation before commenting to his partner. "Hm… this might be a bit more complicated than anticipated."

"Gee, ya think?!" came Proto Drive's snappy reply.

 **LEVEL 2 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **Damn, that took me a bit longer than planned to get down. I don't have all the cutscene translations for that early game section so I had to work around it and still get the general gist of things. If you enjoyed, please leave a review on your way out. Until next time.**


	3. Where Did That Unexpected Aid Come From?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Third Level – Where Did That Unexpected Aid Come From?**

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Pause the game for a second! I happen to know that Goddesses shouldn't be Godzilla size!" exclaimed Neptune while waving her arms wildly.

"That's right!" added Nepgear. "If Goddesses were that huge, they wouldn't need to go and fight monsters! They can simply flick them away like bugs!"

"Flick things away like an insect? I would like to see that big lady up there try that with me!" Uzume reached for her weapon. "Finally, the chance for a one-on-one battle has arrived! Daichi, Neppuchi and Geacchi can escape without me - I'll fight!"

"Are you serious?!" Mr. Belt could not believe what he was hearing.

"Then let me help too!" Neptune stepped forward as well with her wood katana ready.

"You want to fight that thing?! There's no way you can win!" What logic did this Neptune girl run on? Daichi really didn't understand it.

"It'll be fine! No matter the situation and no matter the size of my enemy… by Main Character Compensation, I will make it through!"

"B-but… I think Onee-chan's not the Main Character here," pointed out Nepgear in a quiet voice, proving her own awareness of the Fourth Wall.

"Neppu?!"

"That's right. The story's title doesn't have your name in it so that probably means you're not the Main Character," explained the younger sibling.

"How can that be?! I'm the Main Character of Main Characters!"

While the two went back and forth, Proto Drive glanced over at Uzume. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

"Beats me." Just as she said that, her communicator beeped once. She pressed a button on her device to answer the call. "Umio?"

 _"Thank goodness I finally reached you!"_ exclaimed an elder male voice on the other end. _"Uzume, you need to get out of there now before the Dark Goddess becomes active!"_

"How's the evacuation status of this area?" asked the redhead. "Is there anybody else that might have showed up after your scan?"

 _"I only read three humans that are with you. No other humans in the area."_

"Then…" Before Uzume could say anything else, the ground shook again briefly before Umio spoke again.

" _This is bad! The Dark Goddess has released a temporal shockwave! You have to escape quickly with your companions!"_ With that, the transmission was cut off just as another window opened in Daichi's vision.

"Again?!"

 **MISSION: Escape the area with your party and avoid the temporal shockwave!**

 **Rewards for Success: 500 EXP, 1000 Credits, 1 x Core Driviar-N**

 **Failure: Game Over**

 **Shockwave Distance to Current Position: 3 KM**

'Goddammit!' He furiously swiped the air to dismiss the window.

"Temporal shockwave?! What did he mean by that?" asked Nepgear.

"Everyone, let's get back to the car!" shouted Proto Drive. "It's our only chance to get out of here quickly!"

As the party went back down the way they came from, Uzume pointed out something. "How are we going to fit everyone in the car? There are only two seats!"

"Ooh, can I drive? I'm really good at racing games!" said Neptune.

"Are you capable of handling a sports vehicle that can go up to a maximum speed of around 273 kilometres per hour? Do you know how to drive with manual transmission? Can you maintain control of the vehicle with passengers on board?" asked Mr. Belt in his cool tone.

"… Well, if I could swap out the steering wheel for a control pad, I could probably do it!"

"Unfortunately, we don't have that option," quickly answered the device. "If there's nobody else here capable of operating that vehicle, then Daichi will have to drive."

"ME?! What makes you think that I can handle this vehicle, Belt-san? I normally drive a Nissan and I barely got any training in doing vehicular stunts! I probably got only one hour in the Tridoron stunt vehicle on set at most!" protested the stuntman.

"Right now, you're our best option for a driver since you actually have some experience driving a vehicle built similarly to the Honda."

Daichi sighed once before taking the key out. "If my transformation belt gives me a vote of confidence, who am I to argue?"

"Alright… but that doesn't solve the problem of fitting everyone in!" said Uzume again.

"This is how we're going to do this. Uzume has to ride shotgun with me so she can help me navigate the area. As for you two ladies…" Proto Drive walked over to the trunk of the vehicle and opened it before making a gesture with his free hand. "You're going to have to hop inside here. There should be enough space if you squeeze in."

By the look on Neptune's face, she obviously wasn't taking this very well. "What?! You want to stuff me, the Main Character of Main Characters, into a car trunk?!"

"It's not that I want to but if we're all going to get out of here before that shockwave hits the area, then you have to put up with it."

"Onee-chan, it really can't be helped," chimed in Nepgear.

"Grrrr… fine! In return, I'm officially revoking your flag raising privileges with me and the Neptune route is locked!" shouted Neptune dramatically while pointing a finger at him.

"I can live with that. Now move!" Once they got inside the trunk, he secured the lid and entered the driver's side while Uzume got into the other seat.

"Ah, geez… this is making me nervous," mumbled the girl while fastening her seatbelt.

"You're nervous?! I'm the one behind the wheel here!" shouted the stuntman while receiving an info update.

 **Shockwave Distance to Current Position: 2 KM**

With his own seatbelt in place, Daichi turned on the car, released the parking brake and shifted gears before driving towards the garage's exit. As soon as he reached the surface and got back to the main road, he could see the strange looking energy wave reflected in his rearview mirror. Without hesitating, he slammed his foot on the accelerator to build up speed and get away from that shockwave.

"Uzume, where do we need to go?" asked Mr. Belt.

"Uhhh…"

The way she said that definitely unnerved Daichi. "Uzume-san?"

"Look, I usually take plenty of shortcuts and travel on foot! I don't normally travel by vehicle!" protested the red haired girl. "So I don't know how the landmarks will look from this viewpoint!"

"… _Oh, dear_ …" Even though Mr. Belt spoke in English, Proto Drive could clearly determine that his partner was deeply worried. "In that case, let's check out what our map says. Daichi, please bring it up."

"Ah, right." Daichi's helmet optics lit up briefly before a miniature holographic map showed up on Uzume's side of the windshield. A small moving 'R' icon much like the one on his helmet was displayed travelling along a line while the destination was marked further ahead. The optimized route was also highlighted and on full display. "So it's just a straight drive through?"

"It ain't gonna be that easy!" pointed out the redhead as she spotted two mechanical machines walking ahead. They were the same models as the ones they fought earlier. As soon as they detected the approaching Honda, they raised their weapons and prepared to fire.

"Our map doesn't factor in enemy movements? This is bad!"

Just as Mr. Belt stated that, Proto Drive made a quick lane change to have the vehicle dodge the laser blasts from the machines. "We don't have time for this!"

 **Shockwave Distance to Current Position: 1 KM**

"Lemme give you some relief!" Uzume quickly opened her side window and brought out her megaphone before sending out a powerful sound wave to temporarily get the machines disoriented just as they approached the moving vehicle. The sound wave kept the machines off balance long enough for the black sports car to pass by and get some distance far away so that they wouldn't pursue easily.

"Good work there!" complimented Daichi before spotting some chunks of concrete ahead blocking the road ahead. "Crap! Road's blocked! We'll have to take a detour!"

The route optimization changed based on the updated information with the road blockage. It now indicated that they would need to take a right turn at the next intersection and then make a left on the second street which would allow them to rejoin the main road again. It also indicated that this would delay getting to their destination by an additional minute which wouldn't normally be a big deal in other circumstances but with a Temporal Shockwave on their tail, one minute could mean the difference between life and death.

Just as soon as he turned, Proto Drive slowed the vehicle down to Uzume's alarm. "Why are we slowing down?"

"There are potholes ahead," flatly remarked the Rider while pointing out to the damaged road surface. "If we go over those things at full speed, we could seriously damage the car!"

As he carefully drove through to get to the second street on his left, his information updated once again.

 **Shockwave Distance to Current Position: 600 M**

'Dammit! Can we make it somehow…?!'At the shockwave's rate of travel and their own current speed, they were really going to be tight in this race.

* * *

Elsewhere on the rooftop of a tall and abandoned apartment complex, a lone male figure observed the black vehicle on the ground weaving in and out to avoid the potholes as much as possible. He was dressed in a black and blue racing suit. His head was completely concealed by a black safety helmet with a blue heat shield in place to make it that nobody could see any of his facial features.

His helmet also had two other components built into it. The first was a built in camera to capture footage of whatever he was seeing. Right now, it was zoomed in on the black Honda sports car and the two occupants inside. The second part was a radio to allow him to communicate, similar to how racing car drivers had radios to communicate with spotters and their crew chiefs.

"Kurome, are you picking this up?"

" _Yeah,"_ came a distorted female voice. _"Where did that girl and her Kamen Rider partner come from?"_

"Perhaps they came from the space time warps created by the Dark Goddesses."He looked to the right where the temporal shockwave was coming from. "In any case, what do you want to do about them? At this rate, they'll likely be caught in that shockwave and could be erased from existence."

" _Che… I need to investigate them first and check how their well-being may impact us. I can't do it now though since I already have my hands full organizing things for the debut of the Gold Third."_ After a pause, the other female spoke again. _"Help them out for now but be discreet about it."_

"Roger that." Once the channel was cut off, he walked back to his parked vehicle: a 2-door coupé with a black colour scheme and blue electronic circuit lines. He then opened the passenger door to retrieve his equipment. Within a few seconds, he had his own Drive Driver on his waist along with the Shift Brace on his left wrist.

Now properly equipped, his right hand moved to the ignition switch on his belt and twisted it once.

 _ **START OUR MISSION.**_

Upon hearing the cold, mechanical voice from his belt and the standby music play, he pulled out a Shift Car which seemed to be split into two halves with the bottom half showing a yellow colour and the front engine part of the car showing a black and blue colour scheme like his actual vehicle. After inserting the Shift Car into the Shift Brace, he pumped it once.

"Henshin."

A dark bodysuit with blue connecting lines formed over his body before the armour pieces fell into place, sporting a similar blue line on black surface design as his vehicle. His own helmet was completely black with the exception of a blue circuit line running along the middle of the forehead to meet the 'R' logo resting on the forehead. His eyes were protected by blue optics that was shaped like a pair of stylish sunglasses. An energy tire formed from his vehicle and flew over to him before settling on his upper torso with the tread grooves highlighted in a yellow colour and the words 'Type Next' inscribed on the black surface. Finally, the right side of his belt had a container for three Shift Cars known as Shift Next Builder, Shift Next Traveller and Shift Next Hunter.

 _ **DRIVE! TYPE… NEXT!**_

Once the orchestral rock music finished playing, the newly transformed Rider moved to the edge of the roof so that he would get maximum effectiveness. Then he raised his hand and sent out a Slowdown field to decrease the movement of the energy wave pursuing the Honda. As the black car began getting more distance away from the slow moving shockwave, the figure on the rooftop muttered something to himself.

"You owe me one, Drive Ni-go."

* * *

'That feeling back there…!' While Mr. Belt was deep in thought, the redhead looked in the rear view mirror.

"Did we make it through? Is that thing still following us?" asked Uzume while Daichi kept focused on the road, noting with relief that there seemed to be a greater distance between them and the shockwave. Finally, one last info bulletin came in his vision.

 **REACHED SAFETY AREA. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.**

As the numbers started showing on the window, a clunking noise was heard as something bounced off Proto Drive's helmet into Uzume's lap. It was a small object that could fit in a human palm shaped like an engine. "What's this?"

"That's a Core Driviar, Uzume," answered Mr. Belt. "That is able to generate the Slowdown you experienced earlier."

"Whoa… this little thing was the cause of that whole freaky feeling?" Before she could ask any more questions, Daichi brought the vehicle to a stop.

"Daichi, what is it?"

"It appears we have a looting opportunity, Belt-san. My info window's saying that there's a military base, four kilometres north from here."

A small 'hm' came from the device before it spoke again. "Then it's best we take this chance. We might be able to retrieve some components for the Tridoron there."

Proto Drive turned his head to his shotgun passenger. "What about you?"

"Not like I can say much. You're the one driving," admitted Uzume.

"Then let's go scavenge." He made a left turn and within a few minutes, he pulled right in front of the entrance of the base.

"Oi, don't forget to let Neppuchi and Geacchi out," reminded the redhead.

"I remember," said the stuntman before opening the trunk and extending a hand to the girls inside. "You two okay?"

"Owie…" Nepgear groaned once as she got out along with Neptune. "At least we all made it through. Where are we?"

"We're here to look for supplies and items," answered Mr. Belt. "What I'm hoping for in particular is that we can locate a Laser Cannon and Bi-Directional Circuit needed for vehicle upgrades. Keep in mind that it's possible that there could be a lot of monster activity in the area. Please don't rush through recklessly and attract a huge horde."

"Hmmm… so you want us to play stealthy and stay healthy? I can do that!" chirped Neptune.

"I certainly hope so," grumbled the device. While the girls just moved straight in to begin searching for items, Mr. Belt's electronic eyes noticed the English language on one of the signs posted outside welcoming visitors.

 _Welcome to PGSDF Second Division HQ, proudly serving Planeptune!_

"… Planeptune?"

"Something wrong?" asked Daichi as he glanced down at the belt.

"… No, it's nothing."

 **LEVEL 3 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **A bit shorter than usual but this is what my muse felt like pumping out for now so this is what you get.**


	4. Why is Mr Belt So Crabby?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Fourth Level – Why is Mr. Belt So Crabby?**

"Is this it?" asked a tired Proto Drive from behind the wheel before Uzume nodded from the shotgun seat.

"Yeah, that's my base alright. If you park on the right, you can unload your stuff too."

"Good." He directed the Honda over before putting it into reverse and moving the storage wagon into position against the loading dock with all the salvaged gear they got from the base so that it would be easier to transport the items off. As soon as he felt a solid bump from the wagon against the loading dock, he immediately parked the vehicle and turned off the engine while Uzume got out from her side. "Haa… we made it out of the base in one piece."

"It's a good thing our Shift Car friends held those monsters off with some Slowdown while we got away," said Mr. Belt.

Proto Drive shook his head. "That Neptune girl… does she have to keep shouting that she's bouncing around like a kangaroo and alert a friggin horde of monsters?"

"Someone called my name?" Neptune hopped out of the wagon before sticking her face by the driver side window. "Why are you pooped already? Aren't you supposed to be a cyborg or something with high battery life?"

"No, I'm human," replied Daichi as he deactivated his Rider armour.

 _ **NICE DRIVE!**_

"Ooh… so we have an actual human male in this setting? Not some robot in disguise? I bet the yuri fans on the other side are gonna start writing death threats!" exclaimed Neptune.

"T-that's going too far!" squeaked Nepgear, coming out from the wagon as well before Uzume led the way to the main area of the shelter.

"Well, here's my place. Sorry it's not cleaner though." There were bits of damage on the walls and chunks of debris scattered on some parts of the floor but it was still decent enough to be habitable. Daichi could see a small area in the corner for sleeping, a small kitchen to fix and eat meals and the centre of the space which had some maps and monitors along with a desk and chair. This was likely where she got her mission briefings from that Umio guy who acted as her mission control.

Neptune grinned. "Nah, it's cool! I mean, it looks like some big secret base or something!"

"That's right! Like the base of a resistance! The whole layout makes it feel like a place where rebels and freedom fighters rest up after a big battle!" chirped Nepgear. "Do you have any secret passages or doors or something like that around here? I wanna see!"

"R-really? You think it's cool?!" For a brief moment, Uzume felt pretty pleased at how the two girls were praising her base.

A simultaneous "Yep!" came from the two sisters.

"I see! Hehehe… well, if you want, I'll show you around the place!"

"Can I pass on that, Uzume-san?" asked Daichi in a weary tone. "I kinda need to catch my breath after all that back there."

"Sure, you can just chill here for a bit. We'll be back shortly! If you need to use the washroom, it's down the hall behind you on your left!" With that, Uzume led the sisters around while the stuntman removed the Drive Driver and placed it on the desk before taking a seat.

"Man, I'm wiped."

"Still, that was a very productive first outing there. Good work, Daichi," complimented Mr. Belt while Midnight Shadow, Funky Spike and Max Flare all dropped in on the same table.

"Thanks, I guess." He paused for a second. "I dunno if I'll be keeping this up though."

"Hm?"

"I mean… you saw those girls out there. They're way more comfortable fighting against those monsters in this place. You can probably combine your power with them and be more effective that way," explained Daichi.

"That's true but I have specific reasons on why I believe you are the most suitable candidate to wield Drive's power." Mr. Belt paused for a moment to figure out the best way to explain things. "First of all, what do you know about the term _tsukumogami_?"

Daichi had to search his memory for that particular aspect of Japanese mythology. "That's used to refer to an inanimate object that comes to life after 100 years."

" _Exactly._ When we came to this world, we must have gone through an accelerated process that allowed me to gain sentience. It's why I have memories of how well you cared for me after filming so I knew I was in good hands."

"Geez, I was just doing my job. But that brings to mind another question..." The stunt performer sat up in a more attentive position. "You have memories of me taking care of you and you said something about having memories of building the Tridoron? What gives?"

"Uzume's mission control said something about the Dark Goddess releasing a temporal shockwave," theorized the device. "It's possible that the memories of a Krim Steinbelt in another universe merged with me due to such an event. In the end, it doesn't matter. The past is the past. We need to concentrate on the here and now."

"Good call there," said Daichi before he took a deep breath. "So you recall that I took good care of you as a prop which makes it one reason. Are there others?"

"Yes and it revolves around compatibility," answered Mr. Belt. "I was able to pick up traces amounts of an unusual energy coming from all three girls. So even if I wanted to have one of them as a partner, I likely would not have been able to maintain a stable transformation."

"I see there. What do you mean by unusual energy?"

"It could be what Miss Nepgear had been referring to earlier. About shares that is." The 'face' of the device turned into a more thoughtful image as his scientific curiosity began perking up. "I would like to see that energy for myself and study it if possible."

"If a chance drops in, I'm sure you'll make the best use of it. In the meantime..." Just as Daichi prepared to get up, an info window opened in his face.

 **TUTORIAL: Item Shop**

'Wait, what…? We're in an apocalyptic world and we still have to worry about earning money to buy stuff?!' This seriously boggled the mind of the stunt performer.

"A tutorial, huh? I wonder how much of this world is based on actual video game mechanics. Maybe we can find save points somewhere," mumbled Mr. Belt.

 **Items can be purchased with credits.**

'Yes, I get that,' thought Daichi irritably while an item list came up.

 **Healing Grass, Price: 100 credits**

 **Detoxin, Price: 250 credits**

 **Paralaxin, Price: 250 credits**

 **Reflex, Price: 250 credits**

 **Tuffmil, Price: 250 credits**

 **Sports Car Scrap Metal, Price: 250 credits**

 **Police Car Scrap Metal, Price: 500 credits**

 **Limousine Scrap Metal, Price: 500 credits**

 **Taxi Cab Scrap Metal, Price: 500 credits**

"Scrap Metal? Can it be…?" A thought came to Mr. Belt. "Daichi, select a Scrap Metal on that list and see what happens!"

"Okay…?" He did as told which brought up an item description.

 **Taxi Cab Scrap Metal**

 **Required component to craft Dimension Cab Shift Car**

 **Purchase? (Y/N)**

"... this must be some joke! Having to spend money to reunite with our friends…?!" Mr. Belt was certainly looking quite crabby at the moment.

 **If you think this is bad, just look at some of the game's actual DLC prices.**

"... just what is with this world when a tutorial can respond back to you?" For a second there, the transformation belt looked a bit frazzled.

"Who knows?" Daichi decided that it would be best not to buy now and clicked on the N before the item shop list came up again. His finger then moved to the X in the top right corner to close the list and receive another prompt.

 **TUTORIAL: Crafting**

 **Crafting can be only done when at a Crafting Station, typically located in a Basilicom. If an available Crafting Station is nearby, you will be notified.**

That was when another pop up window opened.

 **Crafting Station nearby.**

'Just like that?' As the thought passed Daichi's mind, the info window closed before the tutorial continued.

 **Just like that. Do you wish to run through a demonstration? (Y/N)**

"Hm… if this world is running on video game logic, wouldn't crafting work simply as gathering all the components and then pressing a magic button to instantly create the item?" asked the human male.

"I guess we'll have to see for ourselves," admitted Mr. Belt while Daichi pressed 'Y' before new information came into view.

 **Rider Machine Blueprints Unlocked!**

 **Proto Tridoron Components List:**

 **1 x 1992 Honda NSX**

 **1 x Bi-Directional Circuit**

 **1 x Laser Cannon**

 **2 x Core Driviar-N**

 **Note: By crafting Proto Tridoron, the Rider Machine Blueprints for the Tridoron will automatically be updated.**

 **Craft? (Y/N)**

"Proto… Tridoron?" Daichi was sure that he hadn't heard of that vehicle in the series properly but maybe it would have been something Sanjo came up with later in the show or even a future movie.

"This could be very useful," commented Mr. Belt. "If we craft Proto Tridoron, my ability to assist you directly would be increased. In addition, the vehicle itself would not be affected by Slowdown in case an enemy tries to use it against us."

"Well, let's see what happens…" The stunt performer pressed 'Y' once before the two Core Driviars with him along with the Bi-Directional Circuit floated in mid-air and hovered above the black Honda NSX before merging with the vehicle and transforming it. It now sported white and purple stripes down the middle with an open gap above the left front wheel. In between the headlights were the ends of the Laser Cannon while the Rider logo was also present against the purple stripe.

 **ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "Debut Piece."**

 **Description – Successfully crafted your first item**

This was followed by another window flying by.

 **Tridoron Rider Machine Blueprints Updated!**

 _6 x Sports Car Scrap Metal_

 **1 x Proto Tridoron**

 **2 x Tires**

 _1 x Core Driviar-T_

Mr. Belt looked quite pleased at the transformation. " _Good!_ So all we need now is to save up enough money to buy enough Scrap Metal and acquire the other parts to synthesize the Core Driviar-T. It will have to come later, I guess."

"WHOOOAA! What just happened?! Did someone pimp Daichi's ride?" Upon hearing Neptune's loud voice, he looked up to see the girls back from the tour and going over the newly acquired Proto Tridoron.

"I did that thanks to my first attempt at using the Crafting system here. What do you ladies think?"

"Well… it would have been nice if it could have been expanded as a four seater rather than just keeping it as a two seater sports car," admitted Nepgear.

"I really can't do anything about that. Now then…" Daichi turned towards Uzume. "I'm hoping you can answer a few questions. Namely why this world is…"

"Why this world is totally on the verge of collapse?"

"… sure, let's go with that!" He honestly wanted to ask her about the whole gaming mechanic logic this world ran on but figured this was just as important.

"It's because of those huge monsters out there. Nobody knows what they are or where they came from. People started calling them Dark Goddesses thanks to their powers being able to destroy the Earth and the sky."

Daichi's face turned thoughtful for a moment. "That explains the multiple fractures in the sky."

Uzume continued. "From what we know, their power allows them to erase anything out of existence or essentially modify someone's personal temporal history. Because of that power, there are virtually no more humans in the city. Only monsters that retain human intellect but otherwise have nothing left of their original personalities from when they were human. So far, we haven't figured out a way to reverse the process to turn the monsters back to normal humans."

As expected, Neptune did a bit of a freak out upon hearing this. "Eeeehhhhh?! The monsters out there were humans once?!"

"I see… so that explains the lack of Share energy here. It was the damage done to this world thanks to those Dark Goddesses," murmured Nepgear.

"And if they can damage time so easily, maybe that explains how the logic this world runs on is so different from what we're used to," theorized Mr. Belt. "But… if we can beat those Dark Goddesses, will everything go back to normal?"

"Who knows…?" A look of grim determination crossed Uzume's face. "But that's my best hope right now. That's why I'll fight!"

"Right right! Now that we see who our final boss is, we just gotta grind it out until we can take them down and then we can all go back home again!" exclaimed Neptune.

"Oi, oi… don't get ahead of yourself. I wish I can say for sure that beating them will get you back home," said Uzume.

"Well, that's our best hope right now. That's why we'll fight with you!" added Nepgear, shooting back the words spoken by the other girl just a moment ago.

"Heh… you got me there." Before the red head could continue further, a beeping noise came from her wrist communicator and she immediately picked up the call. "It's me. What's the situation?"

" _Uzume, I'm getting some strange readings on Sector 7. It could be some other survivors. I need you to check it out."_

"Gotcha. Leave it to me." Just as she hung up, Neptune got curious.

"Who was that? Uzume's comrade?"

"Yeah, he's my mission control. Anyways, let's get going! Daichi, start that car!"

He sighed once before retrieving the Drive Driver and the other Shift Cars while the girls headed over to the parked vehicle and the wagon. "What a short break."

This merely earned a chuckle from Mr. Belt. "A Rider's work is never done."

* * *

The trip to Sector 7 looked like a simple one but because of the amount of debris and the length of time it would take to detour around just to get there, the party ultimately parked the Proto Tridoron a few blocks away and made the rest of the trip on foot. By the time they got to the area, they could see some signs of a fight that had taken place. There were faint footprints from dirt that came from both a monster and a human alike while there were black marks on the ground, indicating where an energy weapon had been used.

"It looks like we were just a bit late," noted Nepgear while Daichi looked around a bit.

"Then, let's spread out and see if we can find any survivors," ordered Uzume.

"And if we run into monsters, we just beat the snot outta them, right?"

The redhead grinned upon hearing Neptune's spirited reply. "That's right. I'm counting on ya, Neppuchi."

"… Neppuchi?!"

Uzume put her hands on her hips. "Your name was Nep-something or other, right? So I'm just calling ya Neppuchi."

For some reason, that made Neptune feel a bit depressed. "Unbelievable… is my name really that hard to remember? I mean, it's one thing for Compa not to remember my real name and call me Nep-Nep but…!"

"Onee-chan…" Before Nepgear could try and say something, Neptune's mood shifted suddenly back to her usual energetic self.

"But I'm okay with that nickname! It's pretty cute!"

'Wow… she got over that quickly.' Just as that thought passed through Daichi's head, a loud roar was heard just as a strange looking quadrupedal monster leapt its way into the scene, ready to face the party. It had lizard like features such as brown leather skin, sharp claws and a pair of huge brown horns on the head.

"Heh… fancy seeing ya here!" exclaimed Uzume while whipping out her megaphone.

"Eh… Uzume knows that monster?" asked Neptune.

"I've run into that thing before when I started doing this job. Every time I tried to fight it in the past, I never was able to beat it but now, I'm sure I can do it thanks to Daichi."

The stunt performer seriously got confused upon hearing that. "Huh? What did I do?"

"When you transformed earlier, it triggered a memory of mine in a way. Now I remember how to use this trinket that I had with me from the beginning!" With that, her right hand reached into her pocket to reveal a blue gem of sorts. "Alright, you dog bastard! This time, we're taking you out!"

Nepgear gasped upon seeing that. "A Share Crystal?!"

Uzume held up the trinket high in the sky. "Share Crystal… HENSHIN!"

'Wait… what?!' Before Daichi could react, a burst of light enveloped the redhead before revealing her new form. Her long hair was still in the same shape but it became light orange and at the base. The hairstyle got looped in a loose circle, resembling a ribbon, while the rest of the hair ran loose. Her eye colour turned light blue while the power symbol could be seen in the irises. As for her outfit, it changed to a white-themed outfit with orange and blue accents.

"Transformation complete~!"

"Who…?!" Both the sisters and Daichi stared in complete surprise.

"… is that really the same girl?!" said Mr. Belt in a shocked tone. She no longer spoke in a rough manner but instead, her dialogue was delivered in a cute, high pitched tone.

"Geez, you don't have to freak out so badly!" pouted the orange haired girl before smiling at her companions. "It's still me, Uzume… U-zu-me! Let's all do our best against that doggy!"

 **LEVEL 4 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **So there's the fourth level. Finally managed to get this out after being occupied with a recently purchased Neptunia Re;birth 1. I actually got lucky when a friend of mine told me about how this was included in a Humble Bundle and got this and a bunch of other games for only $10 USD so thanks to playing that game, I'm getting a better feel for the Neptune universe characters.**

 **As always, if you liked, please leave a review on the way out!**


	5. Who is Targeting the Goddess?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Fifth Level – Who is Targeting the Goddess?**

"So this is the power of Share Energy? I never expected that it would have such an impactful change," murmured Mr. Belt while the girls quickly leapt into action. Not only did Uzume's body shape change drastically but her voice did too. And from what he was observing, her personality went from a rough and tumble girl to… something more childish that dreamed a lot. She still recognized her allies though so that was a good thing.

"Uh, can you get focused? We need to help the girls out, Belt-san." Daichi already had the black Shift Car in his hand ready to go.

"I'm not sure if that's really necessary. They seem to be doing fine right now." The stunt performer did look up to see Neptune, Nepgear and the transformed Uzume taking on that monster with their respective weapons. There was no indication that they were in any major trouble.

"O… kay? So we're just standing by?"

"Right now, I'm using this chance to gather as much information as I can on Share Energy and the enhancements they grant on a person. We need to understand how this works and start determining which Shift Cars would be the most effective against someone powered by Share Energy," said the device while continuing to take readings.

"Wait… what?" He started feeling nervous at the way his Drive Driver said that.

Mr. Belt noted his partner's apprehension and moved to calm him down. "It's merely a precaution. After all, we managed to find a Core Driviar among one of the enemies we fought earlier. It's not unreasonable to assume that the one pulling the strings would also be able to harness Share Energy for their own nefarious purposes."

"Ah… so that's what you meant." Daichi let out a small sigh of relief just as Nepgear landed beside him, breathing a bit hard from her earlier exchange with the monster.

"Daichi-kun, what's wrong? Why haven't you transformed?"

"Sorry but Belt-san is right now focused on studying Share Energy and how it powered Uzume up."

Of course, this got the girl a little annoyed. "Huh?! You objected strongly when I asked permission to study you and now you're studying Share Energy without even asking?!"

"But your idea of studying involved taking me apart while all I'm doing is gathering information through observation and scans!" countered Mr. Belt causing Nepgear's anger to dissipate, leaving only a little bit of embarrassment and nervousness.

"T-that's true…"

"NEEPPPPU!" They looked up quickly to see that the monster had the hood of Neptune's parka firmly in its mouth and was shaking her around like a rag doll. "Someone… anyone… ASSIST ME!"

"Let Neppuchi down! Bad doggie!" shouted Uzume before renewing her assault again with her megaphone.

"Oh my goodness!" And once again, Daichi was left by himself as Nepgear rushed back in to help. Upon seeing the sight, he glanced down at the Drive Driver.

"... doing fine, huh?"

Mr. Belt coughed briefly. "Well, they haven't taken any serious damage so yes."

This simply earned a shrug from the stunt performer. "It's your call."

* * *

The first sensation the young man felt were drops of water falling on his face. Within moments, he was fully awake and groaning in pain while he tried to recall what just happened to him prior to arriving here but he could only recall a few bits and pieces. His actual last complete memory was when his employer, a girl with black hair in a twin tailed style, formally hired him as her secretary. Everything else was somewhat scrambled after that.

"Hoh… what do we have here?"

He turned around and spotted the approaching woman. Despite his damaged memory, he could still remember individual characters back in his world such as his brother. So in this instance, he was able to recall spotting that woman around with the Generals. Even though her outfit changed a bit, she still bore similar characteristics such as the purple skin, the witch hat and the exposed cleavage. "You're that fortune teller… Eno, right?"

"Eno?" The woman seemed to mull it over for a while before her face softened, as if recalling a memory. "Oh my… I haven't gone by that name in a long time. It's Arfoire now."

"A long time…?" He took note of those specific words and came to a conclusion. "So this is Gamarket's future?"

"Indeed. It's the world that came to be because of the Goddess system. Did I not warn you of this? When Goddesses fight each other, the land and the people suffer. This is a natural outcome of such battles." Arfoire paused for a moment before pointing a finger up towards the sky. "There, do you see that?"

The young man looked to where she was pointing and could see a giant figure in the distance in black and purple armour with energy wings on her back. "That's…"

"... a Goddess."

"Impossible! The transformation isn't like that!" Even if his memories were damaged, he still remembered enough in that a transformed Goddess still remained at normal human height and not the size of a giant mecha. After all, Lady Noire had transformed in front of him during their first meeting.

"Maybe not the first few times but it accumulates. And once enough time has passed, the Share Energy consumes them and mutates them into those abominations."

He felt sick upon hearing her words. "So this is the fate that awaits Lady Noire?"

"Unfortunately, yes," answered the witch.

"I can't accept that…"

" _Don't call me by the name 'Lady Black Heart'. You can call me by my normal name…"_

"I won't let that happen!" He clenched his fist tightly before looking up at Arfoire. "How can this transformation be undone? If it can't be undone, then can you send me back to the past so I can try and fix things?"

"I might be able to help but I will first require a newly born Goddess. And by coincidence, we have a lead to look into." Raising a hand, she projected a small holographic map with a specific mark. "A Share Crystal has just been activated. There's a good chance a newly born Goddess will be in the vicinity. Take her alive and bring her to me."

"You require a Goddess?"

Arfoire gave a small smirk. "I have a talent for being able to copy powers if I have a good understanding of it. If I have access to a Goddess, then I can figure out how their transformation works and possibly how to forcibly reverse it. Or I might get lucky and figure out how to travel through dimensions. After all, the mutated Goddesses can bend time and space on a whim so if I understand how to do that, sending you back would be simple."

The young man took those words in. 'So they were the ones who were likely responsible for my appearing here and possibly damaging my memories in the process. Now I see.'

"You're going to need a tool to help you bring in that Goddess. Here." With a wave of her hand, an object materialized in the man's hand. He stared at the object as it created a brief data stream between itself and his body before taking a shape very similar to the gun/knuckle combination weapon used by his sibling. The major difference was that while his brother's weapon had a gold colour scheme, his weapon was predominantly purple in colour.

"This is…?"

"I had an encounter with someone who wielded a similar weapon and copied the basic form. The remaining functions of the weapon were born from your own uniqueness and your memories. But enough of that… don't you have somewhere else to be?"

Without saying another word, the young man took off in the direction of the newly activated Share Crystal while Arfoire merely smiled at how things turned out. A few half-truths here and there were enough to allow him to come to his own conclusions and open himself up to be used for her own plans. The fact that he had good compatibility with a basic copy of the weapon wielded by that black and blue armoured warrior was merely icing on the cake.

And speaking of that black and blue warrior, she gave an irritated sigh the moment she spotted the black and blue vehicle out of the corner of her eye turn into her line of sight before it summoned some holographic turrets that aimed directly at her. It wasn't like she could blame him for being such a persistent pursuer. After all, she copied the basic elements of his Core Driviar technology under his nose and is putting them to the test, giving them to some of the monsters in this world. Of course he would be pissed about that.

"We really have to stop meeting like this, Mr. Kamen Rider."

The only response from the NEXTridoron was to open fire.

* * *

"Alrighty then… time for the finish! Cross Combination!" After getting into her stance, Neptune leapt forward with her Wooden Sword, landing a series of four slashes against the weakened monster before her fifth slash launched it into the air. She immediately followed the creature for one last slash, sending it slamming into the ground below. It gave out one last roar before slumping against the concrete pavement.

The transformed Uzume gave a sigh of relief. "Unyaaa… finally, we were able to win against that doggy!"

"I honestly don't think that's a dog," mumbled Nepgear.

"And we beat it up thanks to you two! Super mega thanks!" The transformed Uzume then looked over at Daichi. "You don't get mega thanks though since you didn't jump in!"

"If you really want to blame someone for that, blame Belt-san," protested the stunt performer. "His scientific curiosity sparked up at the wrong time."

"Indeed. I do apologize for that."

Since the belt's facial image looked a bit sorrowful, the orange haired girl decided not to chew him out further for that and smiled brightly. "S'okay! I'll forgive you!"

"In any case, there's no need for thanks! As friends, helping each other out is only natural!" chirped Neptune while putting away her weapon.

"That's right!" A thought came to the younger of the two siblings from Planeptune. "Um…what's the name of Uzume's Goddess Form?"

"It's Orange Heart~!"

"To be honest, it was really surprising to see Uzume with a Goddess form," said Neptune. "When you transformed, I thought your personality would have been fiercer but who would have thought that the opposite happened? I just can't help being real super fascinated with it!"

"Huh… how does Neppuchi know about the Goddesses?" asked Orange Heart in a curious tone.

Neptune put her hands on her hips to strike a pose. "Ah, right! A lot happened before so I didn't really get a chance to tell you but we are Goddesses like Uzume too!"

The orange haired girl looked shocked. "No way?! You're not joking, are you?"

"It's really true! I'm Purple Heart, the awesome Goddess of Planeptune!" The bravado faded a bit as she scratched her cheek sheepishly. "But since there are no shares here, I can't transform and show you."

'Planeptune… then perhaps this is the future of her world?' thought Mr. Belt to himself.

"Then… Geacchi is also a Goddess?"

"That's right!" answered Nepgear. "To be technical, I'm a Goddess Candidate."

And with that, the bright smile was back on Orange Heart's face. "Ehhhh… what a coincidence! I'm astonished to meet other Goddesses in a place like this!"

Neptune returned the same energetic smile. "Same with us! This must be some kind of intertwined fate! So let's be good friends from now on!"

"You bet!" agreed Orange Heart.

"Urrrrr…" The party all looked up to see the monster they just defeated slowly begin to stand up.

"No way?! It's still alive?" Nepgear looked pretty shocked upon seeing that.

"That's a tough doggy there!" But just as Orange Heart readied her megaphone again, a single word said in a bone chilling tone cut through the atmosphere.

 _ **GUN!**_

At that moment, a barrage of purple coloured energy shots were shot against the weakened monster, finally putting it out of its misery and causing its physical form to dissipate into data.

"WAH! What was that?! We have a kill stealer here! All that extra EXP… gone!" Neptune didn't look too happy about that.

"… wait a second…" Daichi looked to where the shot came from and spotted a familiar face, framed in short black hair, slowly approaching the group while his right hand was still extended, holding the Break Gunner. His wardrobe was predominantly in purple with a small scarf around his neck and a purple leather jacket, decorated with silver chains and stones at the front. The rest of his outfit consisted of purple coloured jeans and black shoes. Finally a skull ring was seen on his right index finger.

"Eh… who is that?" Nepgear looked rather curious at this development while the stunt performer ran up to the other guy.

"It can't be… Katono-san, you were brought here too?"

"Daichi knows that guy?" asked Orange Heart.

There was a brief pause as the newly arrived youth coldly addressed the stunt performer. "You're mistaken. I am Chase, Personal Assistant of Lastation's Lady Black Heart."

"Whoa… what?" While Daichi tried to wrap his head around that, Chase continued his way towards the girls who began chatting amongst themselves.

"Okay… I know that I don't have the best memory but I'm pretty sure I would have remembered seeing a total hunk hanging around Noire in Lastation," chirped Neptune.

"Same here. And if he had been her personal assistant, wouldn't she have shown him off?" This didn't make sense to Nepgear while Chase stopped right in front of Orange Heart.

"You must be the newly born Goddess. You will have to come with me."

The orange haired girl frowned. "Sorry but I'm not supposed to go off with strangers. Besides, I got things I gotta do!"

He began to advance further, prompting Neptune to quickly move in and block his path. "Hey, what's the big idea trying to take off with our buddy?! More importantly, you got some important questions to answer! I mean, there's gotta be more dirty laundry in Noire's closet aside from her liking to cosplay!"

Nepgear's eyebrows began to twitch. "Are those really the important questions to ask, Onee-chan?!"

"Step aside," said Chase coldly while Neptune continued to stand in his path.

"That ain't happening!"

"Very well…" The young man brought up the Break Gunner before pressing his left palm into the nozzle, causing heavy metal standby music to play. He then released the nozzle and held the Break Gunner up while his transformation went underway.

 _ **BREAK UP!**_

Several holographic images of tires and engine parts appeared over him before coming together to form his suit while ominous heavy metal music played. Once the transformation was completed, Chase was now in a suit of black body armour with silver tubes on the left side of his lower chest and on the right side of his thigh, making it go all the way to his back. There was a mounted engine on his right shoulder and his helmet resembled an engine block. For his helmet, he had a yellow lens on the left side, while his other lens was completely covered by a grill.

"Neppu?! He can transform too?! That's so not fair!" exclaimed Neptune, looking rather nervous.

"That's… Mashin Chaser?!" Daichi looked on in shock. "Just what does he want with Uzume-san?!"

"Daichi, we have to get everyone out of here! I've already sent a signal to the Proto Tridoron to come here but it'll take some time before it arrives!" said Mr. Belt.

"It's gonna be easier said than done! The others are probably running low on energy after fighting that monster earlier. We gotta pick up the slack and buy some time for everyone to withdraw!" The stuntman ran forward with the black Shift Car in his hand.

"Agreed but Mashin Chaser is strong enough to defeat the complete Type Speed form," warned the belt. "You have to be extra careful!"

"I hear you!" His hand reached for the ignition switch.

 _ **START YOUR ENGINE!**_

"Henshin!" After inserting the black Shift Car, he pumped it once before making his way towards the other armoured figure.

 _ **DRIVE! TYPE… SPEED!**_

"… ?!" Upon picking up the loud noise behind him, Mashin Chaser turned around just in time to see Proto Drive land a kick in his stomach area, forcing him back from Orange Heart.

'Chance!' A quick three pumps later…

 _ **SP-SP-SPEED!**_

… And he continued his attack on Chaser; landing as many punches as he could against the enemy before landing one last solid punch which sent him flying back a brief distance. Of course, with his suit being more advanced, Chaser barely felt the physical damage. But now, his mind was in turmoil upon seeing the Drive Driver being used by his latest opponent.

"How… how did you obtain Krim's belt?! Who are you?!"

As for Proto Drive, one piece of dialogue from an earlier episode that he worked on popped in his mind.

"I don't need to introduce myself to something I'm going to destroy."

 **LEVEL 5 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **So we now officially have a Mashin Chaser/Future Kamen Rider Chaser and it's an AU Chase. Here, he still maintains a lot of his canon characteristics but has some differences due to filling in the role of the Player Insert Character from the Hyperdevotion Noire game. I don't know if I will be able to write a complete separate fic that documents his time as Noire's Secretary and his adventures in Gamarket but if there's subsequent demand, I'll consider it as yet another side project.**

 **Still pondering who to use for Kamen Rider Mach. I'm thinking of basing him off the Player Insert Character from the Neptune Idol game but the difference is that Noire Insert is native to Gamarket while the Idol Insert is someone from the real world like an actual Self Insert. Any thoughts on how to approach this?**


	6. Which Memory did the Reaper Regain?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Sixth Level – Which Memory did the Reaper Regain?**

As Daichi shifted his position to be ready for anything from his enemy, an information window popped up in his sight.

 **MISSION: Fend off Mashin Chaser's attack until your party can escape in the Proto Tridoron!**

 **Rewards for Success: 700 EXP, 1500 Credits, 1 x Core Driviar-N, 1 x Sports Car Scrap Metal, Trust Points raised with all Party Members**

 **Failure: Uzume/Orange Heart removed from party, decreased Trust Points with all Party Members**

 **Time Remaining: 3 m, 00 s**

'Three minutes, huh? That should be doable… I hope,' thought the stunt performer while dismissing the window.

 _ **GUN!**_

Daichi quickly moved out of the way of the first barrage of fire from Mashin Chaser thanks to his speed boost from the Proto Type Speed Shift Car still in effect. The other warrior kept trying to shoot Proto Drive down but with Daichi moving at a speed equivalent to an object travelling 100 m in 2.1 seconds, Chase was only hitting concrete. He wasn't sure how much time he had left until the speed boost wore off so with that in mind, he raced towards Mashin Chaser with the intent to knock him off his feet and pin him down.

As soon as he got into position behind the enemy, he targeted the back area behind Chase's kneecaps and struck them with his leg, causing him to stumble forward a bit. But just as he was about to try pinning him down from behind, the enemy reached up and grabbed his outstretched right arm. One shoulder toss later and Daichi was thrown on his back on the pavement in front of Mashin Chaser and right within range for a counterattack.

 _ **BREAK!**_

'Move!' Adrenaline kicked in and Daichi rolled to the side in time to avoid the blow from the Break Gunner which created a small crater when it made contact with the pavement. He did scramble to his feet just in time to raise his arms and block a kick attack from Chase but his uneven footing caused him to stumble and fall flat on his back again. 'Shit!'

But just as Mashin Chaser began to advance...

"CHESTO!"

"... ?!" He only had enough time to glance at the right as Neptune's wooden sword struck him in the side, forcing him back and giving Proto Drive some much needed breathing room.

 **Time Remaining: 2 m, 25 s**

After checking the remaining time, he got back to his feet just as the rest of the party caught up.

"Daichi, are you okay?" asked Nepgear.

"I'm fine. I owe your big sister one," admitted the black clad Rider before looking down at his belt. "Belt-san?"

"..." There was a brief moment of silence as the belt didn't respond.

"Um… Belt-san?"

"Oh… sorry, Daichi. I was just a little frazzled upon observing how Ms. Neptune with her size and her wooden sword was able to knock back someone like Mashin Chaser." Mr. Belt paused as his faceplate showed an exasperated look. "Then I had to remember that this world's logic is heavily based on video game mechanics and that she likely possesses a high Strength attribute."

"Well, duh! I'm the main heroine after all!" shouted Neptune with pride while waving her weapon around. "Even if Daichi's the star of the story, I'm still totally important!"

"So what's the plan on dealing with that meanie over there?" asked Orange Heart while Mashin Chaser shook off the earlier surprise attack.

"The Proto Tridoron is on the way but it'll take about another two minutes to get here," answered Mr. Belt. "We just have to hold off his attacks until then. In the meantime, I'm going to equip each of you with a Shift Car as a precaution in case he activates Slowdown."

"The meanie can do that Slowdown thing too? Boo!"

Upon the device finishing the explanation of the plan and Orange Heart venting her frustration, the Shift Cars came in on their miniature roads before dropping themselves on to the shoulders of the girls in the party. This didn't go unnoticed by Mashin Chaser as his mind began settling down after the initial surprise upon seeing an enemy Proto Drive. 'So not only do they have the Drive Driver but access to the Shift Cars. But… why is he still using the Proto Speed Shift Car? Surely by now, Krim's work should have been finished.'

On one hand, it was a good thing that the enemy wasn't using a full version of Drive's power so that meant the enemy wouldn't likely be able to seriously hamper his ability to complete his mission. But on the other hand, Chase felt a slight bit of sadness, seeing that his creator's work would never be fully realized properly.

He quickly shook off the feeling to stay focused on the fight. His instinct told him that he can make use of the Shift Cars and that if he could get his hands on one of them, he would be able to eliminate his enemies and complete his current mission faster. Then he just needed to figure out the exact method in which to use the Shift Cars since he didn't have his own Shift Brace.

"Wait, we can't just beat up that boss?" Neptune frowned before a thought came to her. "Don't tell me it's one of those battles where we do zero damage and are set up to lose because of the plot! Those battles were so not fun!"

 _ **GUN!**_

"EEP!" With that, Neptune moved quickly to avoid the barrage of fire from the Break Gunner.

 **Time Remaining: 1 m, 50 s**

"Onee-chan, I'm coming to help!" Nepgear readied herself, holding her weapon steady with both hands. "My Beam Saber should be effective against that armour!"

As the girl with long purple hair dashed forward, Orange Heart spotted how Mashin Chaser had positioned himself and immediately got a bad feeling about this. "Geacchi, wait!"

"Mirage Dance!" Just as Nepgear reached Chaser with her Beam Saber ready, she executed her combo technique which did get his attention off her sister but his reaction time allowed him to weave in and out of her first series of sword strikes. As soon as she began spinning around for the next part of her attack, he shifted position before delivering a powerful body check, just like how he had watched hockey players in Lowee do that to each other. This had the effect of throwing Nepgear off balance and gave him the opportunity to steal the Shift Car that had planted itself on her shoulder.

"This is bad!" exclaimed Mr. Belt while Nepgear regained her footing and tried to reach for her stolen Shift Car.

"Give that back!"

At that moment, a red energy field erupted from Chase's suit, causing the other girl's body movement to slow down drastically. With her now in point blank range, one charged shot from the Break Gunner should be enough to knock her out. But just as he raised the weapon and opened fire, Proto Drive moved in to grab Nepgear, positioning himself so that his back armour would take the hit from Mashin Chaser. Thankfully, Daichi had enough speed to avoid the full force of the blast, only getting brushed by the edge of the discharge on his lower back armour. It was still enough to cause sparks to fly from that section of his armour while he and Nepgear tumbled to the side.

"OOF!"

"Geacchi! Daichi!" While Orange Heart moved over to help, Neptune pointed her Wooden Sword dramatically at Mashin Chaser.

"So not only are you a kill stealer but you're a Shift Car stealer who tried to take out Nep Jr! You're the worst kind of thief!"

'Thief…?' The one word from Neptune caused Chase to pause as another memory surfaced. It was as if a curtain was pulled back, allowing him to recall the valuable information.

* * *

" _Ultimate Lupin, for your role in the Sharicite crisis and committing acts of terrorism, I'm placing you under arrest!" exclaimed Black Heart as she pointed her weapon at her enemy who leaned casually against the stair railing in the mansion lobby. He was dressed in a white tuxedo, a white top hat and a black cape._

" _Nii-san, why did you do it?" asked Proto Drive as he walked up and stood by his Lady's side. "Why did you choose to become a terrorist?"_

" _I'm no terrorist. At least I don't consider myself to be one. In fact, there's a saying that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," replied Lupin calmly._

" _A freedom fighter?" Black Heart snorted. "Yeah, right! At the least, you're a thief since you like stealing from my rapier collection!"_

" _I have no objections to being called a thief. After all, I'm planning to steal back Gamarket's future from you CPU relics!" Upon saying that, he reached into his cape to pull out a strange looking golden gun._

 _Proto Drive looked startled upon seeing that. 'That's…!'_

" _This is the Lupin Gunner… the power that awoke the moment I realized my purpose. Henshin!" The white clad man pressed his palm into the nozzle of his golden weapon, causing suspenseful jazz music to play before he released it and swung his right arm around to send an array of jewel projectiles into the air, forcing Black Heart and Proto Drive to shield their vision._

 _ **LUPIN!**_

 _The jewel projectiles then gathered and enveloped the man before he emerged with a red bodysuit with black gloves and boots and jewel-decorated straps along all his limbs. His head wore a black and gold top hat while his face was covered with a white mask which had a pair of red optics to serve as his eyes along with black lines running along the cheeks which resembled a gentleman's moustache. Finally, a small black cape appeared behind his back._

" _Kamen Rider Lupin is born!"_

 _Upon hearing that, Black Heart's green eyes hardened. "Kamen Rider…? Don't make me laugh! You're nothing like Chase! He fights to protect the hope of the people!"_

" _And you think I don't? Newsflash for you: there are people who hate the current system and the fact that virtually all authoritative power lies with the CPUs. It's not like the people can simply fire the CPU from the job if they prove unworthy to govern their region. How do the citizens of Lowee feel when they see White Heart cursing up a storm? How should the people of Planeptune react when they see Miss Neptune skip work on multiple occasions for pudding and fun?" Kamen Rider Lupin paused before pointing a gloved finger at the CPU. "You're no exception, unable to understand the feelings of those around you. That's why the Generals abandoned you in the first place! Truly, your name matches the type of person you are: Black Heart."_

" _Stop it! The path you've chosen isn't right!" Despite being a stoic individual most of the time, Proto Drive's reaction was far stronger due to Lupin's words deeply affecting his Lady._

" _Chase, you and I both received the same mission objective from our creator which is to protect the prosperity of Gamarket. We were allowed to make our own choices in how to go about that mission. This is simply the way I choose to do so. I will remove the CPUs from power and return the people's right to choose their representatives. It may not feel right to you but it does to me." With that, his free hand reached into his cape to retrieve a small object and insert it into the opening of the Lupin Gunner. "Even the Shift Cars understand my choice."_

 _ **TUNE! JUSTICE HUNTER!**_

" _What?!" Upon the smooth voice finishing that announcement, a miniature shield shaped like a cage appeared in Kamen Rider Lupin's free hand before he threw it, causing a cage to appear and trap both the CPU and Proto Drive._

" _I hope you finish field testing your Drive Driver soon. Then we can have a proper duel to see who can claim the title of Kamen Rider, little brother." Lupin made one last mocking bow before vanishing from their sights._

* * *

'... So that's how it works.' He glanced down at his left hand, feeling the Shift Car being held there continue to resist and attempt to escape. Without wasting any time, he moved to insert the Shift Car into the opening on the top of the Break Gunner...

 _ **TUNE! MIDNIGHT SHADOW!**_

… before raising the weapon high and firing a projectile into the air that split itself into smaller orbs of light that changed into perfect duplicates of Mashin Chaser to surround the party. There were a total of three clones summoned so that the numbers were now even with four fighters each.

"Neppu?! I call foul! The boss shouldn't be allowed to copy himself!" complained Neptune.

"It's all because of me…" Nepgear looked quite guilty upon seeing how things had escalated to this point. "I have to get that Shift Car back!"

"Whatever you choose to do, you cannot separate yourself from Daichi."

"Eh?! W-w-what do you mean, Belt-san?!" The Goddess Candidate's cheeks went red at the thought.

"Now that you don't have a Shift Car, you need to be in physical contact with someone immune to Slowdown so that you can move normally within the field," clarified Mr. Belt. "Right now, you have to keep in physical contact with Daichi unless he passes you on to your sister or Orange Heart."

"O-oh… okay, there."

 **Time Remaining: 1 m, 25 s**

Mashin Chaser and his copies went on the attack with the duplicates keeping Orange Heart, Nepgear and Proto Drive company while the real Chaser went after Neptune. With Daichi and Nepgear somewhat handicapped by being stuck together for the time being, Orange Heart took on a heavier role in defending her friends. As for Neptune, she managed to fend off her opponent in close combat, despite her weapon not being extremely powerful. He eventually resorted to going back to ranged combat, firing purple energy projectiles in the shape of shuriken to force Neptune back towards the rest of her party.

'Good… they're all lined up together.' With that in mind, Chase pressed his palm into the nozzle of his Break Gunner again.

 _ **EXECUTION!**_

This time, the power of the Shift Car began to gather up for him to perform a Finishing Move with his weapon while the duplicates vanished as a side effect of the energy being gathered. Now with the shot charged up, he pointed his weapon towards the enemy party and pulled the trigger.

 _ **FULL BREAK! SHADOW!**_

"Not so fast!" Orange Heart dipped into whatever energy reserves she had left and summoned a pair of large woofers made out of orange energy behind her party to help amplify her own sound based attacks. Bringing up her own megaphone, she screamed loudly into it to send out a powerful barrage of sound waves to neutralize the near endless waves of energy shuriken fired from the Break Gunner.

 **Time Remaining: 0 m, 35 s**

Just as the last wave of energy shuriken vanished, a flash of light enveloped Orange Heart's body before transforming her back into her normal redhaired form.

"Shit… I'm out of time?" Uzume dropped on one knee while trying to catch her breath.

"Uzume's outta juice? In that case, I'm stepping up to bat!"

Upon hearing Neptune's declaration, Daichi simply gawked. "Seriously? What can your Wooden Sword do against a guy like him?"

Neptune closed her eyes for a moment to amplify her focus and concentration before pointing her Wooden Sword at Mashin Chaser. Once she opened her eyes, she shouted the name of her special technique…

"CRITICAL EDGE!"

… before displaying a level of speed that Chaser had not expected to come from her. Within seconds, she closed the gap and raised her Wooden Sword high before bringing it down hard. His first instinct was to raise both arms and put them in a cross formation to guard the first blow. Despite the fact that he was wearing armour and she was only armed with a Wooden Sword, he could still feel a slight tingling sensation on the wrists. 'She's able to channel that much force with such a simple weapon?!'

Undaunted by how he blocked her first strike, Neptune immediately crouched low as soon as she landed to try an aerial launcher but Mashin Chaser wasn't about to have any of that and immediately brought forward his Break Gunner to intersect with her sword. The clash resulted in her weapon being shattered since it barely held itself together after Neptune had executed the first part of her move.

"Aw, crackers. I really liked that sword." She sighed and tossed it away. "I hope you're thankful for all the effort I put in there!"

'What is she…?' Before Chaser could figure it out, he felt an odd sensation coming from the Break Gunner just as Midnight Shadow broke free, shooting a few mini shuriken into his helmet to distract him while it got away with Neptune. '... she must have knocked it loose enough with that move of hers. She's more resourceful than I anticipated.'

At least now, he should be able to wrap up his business. The group had expended a good deal of energy and had one of their members without a weapon. There was little they could do to stop him from retrieving the girl. But just as he stepped forward, he heard the sound of a car honking its horn...

* **BEEP BEEP BEEP!***

 **Time Remaining: 0 m, 0 s**

… before the ground in front of him exploded in sparks as a result of an energy discharge from the Proto Tridoron which came to a complete stop in front of the party with both doors opening.

" _Great timing!_ " exclaimed Mr. Belt while the vehicle continued forcing Chase back with cover fire.

"It's here!" exclaimed Neptune while bouncing towards the sole passenger seat. "I call shotgun!"

"Wait…! I can still…!"

"Uzume-san, now's not the time!" With that, Nepgear helped the redhead into the back wagon while Proto Drive hopped in the driver's seat. Once everyone was secure, he put the car in reverse and backed out before getting out of the vicinity and far away from Mashin Chaser, who could only growl in frustration.

 **LEVEL 6 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **So a bit of Chaser's time in Gamarket is revealed. Yes, the toy DX Lupin Gunner normally can't do Tunes but frankly, that's pretty silly since in the movie, it's technically based off the Break Gunner data and should have been able to do the same. So I made it possible here.**

 **On a happy note for North American fans, Neptunia Victory II is confirmed for localization as Megadimension Neptunia VII to come out in early 2016.**

 **As for my last bit of business before signing off here, I've decided to take applications for a real world insert character to represent the Player Insert of Neptunia Producing Perfection who will also become Kamen Rider Mach. For anyone interested, please send me a PM with your answers to the questionnaire below.**

1\. Name to go by. Those who choose an alias from a fictional program or use their login name from will be the target of much lampshading and jokes from the Neptunia cast.

2\. Physical Description and rough level of physical fitness.

3\. Approximate level of education. For those with higher education like college/university, what field did you specialize in?

4\. Any character tics such as catch phrases or gestures that you use in real life?

5\. What type of video games do you like to play?

6\. Have you ever played an Idol Raising game like Idolmaster before?

7\. As the Producer, you will be expected to get the Goddesses up to speed on how to be an idol. With that in mind, what rhythm games will you use to set up your initial training program and how much time per day will you schedule for those games?

8\. What is the extent of your Kamen Rider knowledge?

9\. How much Kamen Rider Drive would your insert character have watched prior to being brought into the Idol Dimension?

10\. Which CPU and CPU Candidate are you likely to get along with the most?

11\. Which CPU and CPU Candidate are you likely to get along with the least?


	7. What Are The Trigger Words?

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Seventh Level – What are the Trigger Words?**

"What's the big idea dragging me away from that fight, Geacchi?!" snapped the redhead while riding in the wagon attached to the Proto Tridoron as it drove towards her hideout. "I could have taken that guy!"

"Uzume-san, did you forget that you used a lot of energy as Orange Heart against that monster just moments earlier? If that man had captured you, who knows what could have happened!" exclaimed Nepgear. "We don't want to lose an important friend!"

"... I see." Seeing how worried she looked started calming Uzume down a bit. "Well, I guess I was pushing hard a bit earlier there. Thanks for stopping me."

Meanwhile in the vehicle, Neptune had a serious look on her face while staring intensely at Proto Drive. It was quite different from her usual energetic look which somewhat creeped Daichi out. "What is it?"

"What's with your status looking so different? No HP bar, no SP bar… not even a Level number!"

"What are you looking at?" Just as he asked that, a gleam appeared in Neptune's right eye before a status window opened up to his left side.

 **Status:**

 **2654 Credits**

 **1329 EXP**

 **6 Achievements**

 **Inventory: 1 Core Driviar N, 1 Sports Car Scrap Metal**

There was a brief moment where the stuntman gawked at seeing that before his eyes returned to the road ahead while the window dismissed itself. "How did you…?"

"I'm the main heroine, duh! Seeing this stuff comes naturally to me because I'm so awesome!"

"That really doesn't answer the question," mumbled Mr. Belt in a tired tone. "Then again, perhaps this is something that we really don't need an answer for."

"Agreed," said Proto Drive as he pulled into the base driveway for the second time today. Once everyone got out, they headed together into the main den while Daichi deactivated the Drive Driver.

 _ **NICE DRIVE!**_

"Waaaaahhh… I'm pooped! And sweaty! I could go for a bath now!" exclaimed Neptune while plopping down on a chair.

"A soak does sound nice about now…"

Uzume nodded once upon hearing Nepgear agree with her sister. "Alright, I'll draw a bath for the both of ya."

"What about you, Uzume? You're probably just as sweaty as us! You should join us for some quality girl time complete with skinship!"

"N-nah… it's okay, Neppuchi!" The redhead sounded a little uncomfortable which got Nepgear curious.

"What's with that weird reaction?"

"Huhuhu…" Neptune chuckled briefly before standing up to place her hands on her hips. "I bet it's because Uzume would feel inferior if she saw my super-hot naked body!"

A flat "... what?" escaped from Daichi and Mr. Belt at the same time while the redhead became a bit upset.

"It's not that! It's just that I'm not used to the idea of other people sharing a bath with me! It's gonna be seriously embarrassing!" retorted the redhead with her cheeks flushed slightly.

"How is it embarrassing?" asked Nepgear. "It'll just be you, me and Onee-chan in the bath. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"Come on, let's go already!" Neptune cheerfully grabbed Uzume and began to drag her down the corridor to the bath, despite the protests from the redhead.

"Huh?! Wait… Neppuchi!"

"Daichi, you're staying put there! No peeking for you! You can have the bath after we're done!" And with that, Nepgear left to catch up with Uzume and her sister.

"Yeah, I got it!" Sheesh, who did she think he is? He's an adult, not a teenage boy driven by hormones. And even during his teenage years, his focus had been more on athletics than dating.

Just as he sat down on the empty chair by Uzume's desk and placed the Drive Driver and all the Shift Cars on the table, he heard the voice of Mr. Belt address him. "Daichi, I'm not happy to admit it but we were rather lucky back there. It's likely that Mashin Chaser will have something prepared when he encounters us next time to prevent us from escaping easily."

"Agreed, Belt-san. What can we do on our end to prepare though?" asked the stuntman.

"At the minimum, we have to get the Proto Speed Shift Car updated to its normal form which will help close the gap in power. We'll also need to get the Proto Tridoron upgraded too."

"Easier said than done," grunted Daichi. "The scrap metal components shouldn't be a problem but getting access to a steady source of Core Driviars is another thing. Weren't you able to build a bunch of them though?"

"That was when I was human and had access to my laboratory. It won't be as easy here."

Just as Daichi dwelled upon that, an info window popped up.

 **Additional Tutorials Available. Review? (Y/N)**

"What other rules are here in this world that I need to know?"

"There could be information available to point us in the right direction on obtaining Core Driviars quicker," answered Mr. Belt.

"Alrighty then…" He tapped 'Y' before information began to pour in.

 **TUTORIAL: Shift Car Scout System**

 **Shift Cars can be sent out to other map areas to act as scouts. Map data will be updated with information on monster movements and possible item locations.**

 **The downside is that depending on where they are deployed, there is a chance of them being detected and captured or possibly destroyed. In addition, in the event that they need to be called back to your party, it could take them longer than normal to respond to you.**

 **Unlike the standard Scout System used in Neptune's world, no credits have to be spent to get information.**

"Wow…credits are needed to gather intelligence in their world?" Daichi shook his head in disbelief before Mr. Belt chipped in.

"Let's do a quick test." The info window changed to display a map of areas to be explored before the Driver picked one out closeby which had a short travel period. "Funky Spike, please scout out the Northeast Outskirt."

There was a honk of acknowledgement before the green Shift Car took off on its own miniature road. A ten minute timer appeared on the info window while it proceeded to move on to the next tutorial.

 **TUTORIAL: Trust Points**

 **Works similarly to the Lily System in Neptune's world. Having a High Trust Rank will grant:**

 **Passive bonuses inside and out of battle**

 **Access to Assist Attacks and Combination Attacks (Formation & Coupling)**

 **Access to blueprints to craft helpful items and powerful weapons**

 **If Trust Points are high enough, it's possible to enter a Romantic Relationship with a Party Member. Beware that by doing so, the risk of triggering a Bad End or a Death Flag significantly increases.**

'Like I would want to go for a girlfriend when I have a ton of other things to worry about!' thought the stuntman while the next tutorial started.

 **TUTORIAL: Quests**

 **Quests are optional jobs which can be taken to earn additional items and credits. In the Hyper Dimension, you would have to be at a Guild to accept and report Quests which have an impact on the Shares between nations.**

 **This doesn't apply in the Zero Dimension. Quests can show up at any time and can only be completed once unlike Quests in the Hyper Dimension. There is also a deadline for completion so if you miss out, you miss out.**

"I see. We'll have to keep an eye out then. If there are any quests that offer Core Driviars as a reward, we should put priority on those," said Mr. Belt.

"No argument here."

* * *

"Sheesh… what a waste of time." Five hours after he began chasing her, that Rider finally decided to call it quits and ceased pursuing Arfoire. She had a feeling that he would have rather kept up the chase but other business came up.

The sensors on that vehicle of his were insane and made it easier for him to track her. The speed and sheer versatility of the NEXTridoron allowed him to easily keep up with her teleports. And if she decided to fight him directly, it would only result in nothing but wasted energy. The armour on both the suit and the vehicle could take what she dished out and return it to her and then some. Ultimately, a long drawn out battle would not be in her interests.

'Maybe she…?' The thought was immediately banished from her mind as she entered the quiet medical chamber located in the basement of one of the abandoned hospitals. That girl was going to be her most useful asset and certainly shouldn't be deployed against that warrior at this time. Perhaps she could send Chase in that direction and let that lost young man serve as a distraction.

And speaking of that girl, the top of her brown-grey hair could be seen behind a large recliner chair located close to a projector.

"You're late."

"My apologies," said the witch as she took her position and began setting the image data needed for this session into the projector.

"This is important!" protested the girl, her blue eyes full of emotion. "I have to destroy them!"

"From what I understand though, you were raised rather strictly and were not even allowed to make friends. Your family placed a very high focus on your training so that you would be a valued and highly sought after party member to any adventurer team when you grew up. After all this, you would still fight?"

"Even still… it was how my family cared for me. To ensure that I would be able to support myself. That's why I have to do this! But… every time I see them wielding that unhuman power beyond human imagination, I can't move, much less fight." She had to pause to take a breath and regain her composure before looking at Arfoire. "I don't care what you do… I need that fear taken away."

"… as you wish."

* * *

The empty streets were littered with abandoned vehicles which gave Chase a wider variety to choose from in terms of finding a ride of his own to keep up with the vehicle that Proto Drive and his party used to escape him.

He honestly should have seen it coming earlier and moved to stop it if possible. The Krim in his world had occasionally mused about constructing a support vehicle or two to accompany the user of the Drive System. So now he needed a vehicle of his own if he was going to pursue the target.

Most of the vehicles here on the road though were built for families and normal civilian while any sports cars that he spotted were damaged beyond repair, probably thanks to monster rampages in the area. However, his eyes spotted something of use, located at the end of the street.

In the empty lot next to the damaged motorcycle store was a single motorcycle with the outer frame damaged but the engine still remained intact. The keys were present in the vehicle due to the motorbike originally assigned as a test vehicle for customers to ride.

When Chase did go for his own test ride, he easily saw that he couldn't maintain firm control if the bike started going over 50 km per hour. Obviously, the damaged frame was responsible for his loss in control so he needed to get that fixed up. He also noted that he would have to construct a weighted accessory to be placed in the centre of the bike to help maintain balance.

Next stop for him… the closest blacksmith shop he could find. He had forging to do.

* * *

"This is the Goddess that deprived you of your purpose and erased your papa and mama." The image of the giant woman in black and purple armour stared back at the girl in the recliner while Arfoire stayed behind to operate the projector.

"Papa… Mama…" Her voice was a bit sleepy.

"But don't worry. You can fight now. Now tell me just the way I taught you," said the witch softly while the images shifted to show another angle of the giant woman in black and purple armour. "You can pull the trigger."

"You… taught me…" The girl raised her right arm, clothed in a long black fingerless glove with a giant, thick blood-red bracelet firmly attached to her right wrist and moved her hand as if to grab her weapon.

In a second, the image changed once again. This time to an image of a girl with red-orange eyes and long, sanguine hair worn in pigtails located near the bottom of her head, held by hair that has been knotted. The image of Uzume Tennouboshi, the foolish girl trying to save this world.

"Ajin…"

It flipped to a new image, this time of a girl with long light purple hair with a single D-pad hair clip and violet eyes. Arfoire didn't know that girl personally, only getting some brief snapshots from her hidden surveillance drones but she was someone who had to be dealt with since she recognized the power Uzume used to transform into Orange Heart and called herself a Goddess Candidate.

"… douva…"

Another image change, this time showing a girl with short lilac hair and bangs that reach down to her collar bone and purple eyes. In her hair she had white hair-clips in the shape of D-pads and around her neck is a choker that has a light blue D-pad symbol on it.

Even though Arfoire had never seen this girl before in her life, the sight of that girl made the purple skinned woman tingle in an unpleasant manner which irritated her greatly. Despite how immature she sounded and acted, the long haired purple girl addressed her as the elder sister and the smaller girl identified herself as a Goddess of Planeptune.

But how was that possible? If she truly had been the Goddess of this nation, then Arfoire would have seen her at least once during her lifetime but nothing.

"… touri."

"That's right. They are the enemy you have to fight… the Goddesses." In the end, she's simply another Goddess that would have to be eaten like all the rest by Little Miss God Eater.

 **LEVEL 7 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **Finally, I can put this one to rest, as short as it is. The muse's struggle is real.**

 **In regards to the Kamen Rider Mach audition, applications are now closed. To all of you who submitted your character applications by PM, thank you. To Sonicfanx1, since you wrote down your application in a review, I cannot accept it.**

 **So in regards to how Idol Jigen Gaiden Mach will go, after the intro is posted, I'll be doing one write up based on each character entry I got in my Private Message Inbox and the end of the chapter will clearly indicate whether the entry passes round one and has moved on to the last round of voting which will be decided by the readers. I initially planned to stick with only two final candidate selections to choose from in the last round of voting but I'll be a bit generous and go to three.**

 **Yes, God Eater-chan is in and will be undergoing an original scenario compared to what will likely be done by Compile Heart. To be honest, I felt that they only did the Million Arthur scenario for yuri humour purposes which I felt was pretty shallow so I've decided to take my own approach to the Neptunia VII DLC content.**

 **As always, please review if you enjoyed. If you didn't, let me know what didn't seem quite right and I'll try and fix things up.**


	8. What is with the Daydreaming Uzume?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Eighth Level – What is with the Daydreaming Uzume?**

It was a foreign feeling for Uzume to wake up with company in her home for a change. For the longest time, she's been all by herself when she went home to rest from a hard day out on the field. Now, she had companions: two fellow Goddesses who were like kindred spirits and a young man who was far away from home and extremely stressed.

It wasn't too surprising that as soon as Daichi finished his bath last night, he pretty much zonked out in the spare bedroom that she had. Mr. Belt theorized that his body had been running on fumes due to not only being yanked in between dimensions suddenly but also fighting in two intense battles in a short period of time. After all, if a normal person can get jet lag just from travelling comfortably between countries for a long distance, it would be worse for someone dimension hopping.

First things first, time to wake up this sleepyhead. Both Neptune and Nepgear were awake and were just chatting to themselves out by the small porch. Uzume could see that Nepgear had a small handheld and was fiddling around with it as well.

After passing by the two, she entered Daichi's room where Mr. Belt and the Shift Cars were close by. "Hey, it's morning! Wakey wakey! HEEEYY!"

Nothing happened and the young man just kept on sleeping.

"It appears you will need something stronger to wake Daichi up," commented Mr. Belt while Neptune and Nepgear popped up behind the redhead.

"What's this? You can't wake Daichi-san up?" asked the younger of the two purple haired sisters.

"Yeah, he's still out like a log," came the redhead's blunt reply.

"It's obvious that you're not doing it right! You have to do it in a cute manner! It gets the blood boiling with moe!"

Uzume snorted once at Neptune's suggestion. "A cool person like me can't possibly do such cute things! Don't say such stupid stuff, Neppuchi."

"Lemme try then!" Neptune just pounced right on the stuntman's stomach and started shaking him like a rag doll. "MORNING! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!"

No response which really got Nepgear puzzled. "Wow, is Daichi-san a heavy sleeper or something? You know anything, Belt-san?"

"Unfortunately, I don't," replied the device.

"We can't go on like this! I doubt that the story will be allowed to progress when the main character sleeps through important events!" Neptune then snapped her fingers. "Hmmmm… I got an idea. Uzume-san, let me borrow your Share Crystal!"

"What for…?"

"Well… I was gonna try transforming and then get down and put my mouth next to his ear before going 'Daichi-kun… wa-ke up…'" Neptune giggled a bit. "That would probably work although I think it's kinda embarrassing!"

"… you really want to use a Share Crystal for something as mundane like that?" asked Nepgear flatly. "Besides, it's already bonded to Uzume-san so I doubt it'll let you transform, Onee-chan."

"Boo!" Neptune finally got off Daichi's body.

"Hmmm… there's one last trick I'm gonna try. Stand back." With that, Uzume prepped her megaphone while the sisters plugged their ears as best as possible. One deep breath later…

" **WAAAAAAKKKEEE UPPPPP!"**

Finally, signs of life came to the stuntman as he let out a loud groan and wearily opened his eyes. "What the…?"

"Hehehehe… how was it? Woke you up in one shot, eh?" Uzume just stood there with a big grin on her face.

"Didn't you have a better alternative though?" His ears were still ringing from that. "I mean, I typically used four alarm clocks at home."

"Four?! Wow… you're not a morning person, aren't you?"

"Not really, Nepgear." Daichi gave a big yawn. "I typically need to wash my face properly and have a full pot of black coffee to get perked up for my work day."

"There should have some black coffee lying around here. This used to be a corporate dorm from what Umio told me." Uzume put her megaphone away before preparing to leave. "I'm gonna go fix breakfast for everyone. Daichi, go get washed up."

"I'll help cook!" volunteered Nepgear.

"Okay, Geacchi's with me. Neppuchi can keep an eye on Daichi so that he doesn't fall asleep and hit his head on the sink." Sure enough, she could see that his face still looked rather sleepy.

"Aye aye!"

Daichi merely groaned once before forcing himself out of bed, his still sleepy body guided by Neptune so that he could go to the washroom. Sure enough, he could see a few extra toothbrushes with name labels clearly marked. "When did we get extra toothbrushes?"

"After you crashed out like a light, the three of us grabbed a few extra supplies from some old dentist office not too far from here!"

"Uh huh… well, at least I won't have to worry about stinky teeth…" Once he washed his face, he felt a bit more alert and was able to hear some sizzling noises from the kitchen as Uzume and Nepgear cooked breakfast.

"Alright! The grill is great this morning!"

"Oh goodness! You're quite good with that!" exclaimed Nepgear who brewed the coffee while Uzume worked her magic.

"Hehehe… you gotta have grilled fish in the morning! Nice crispy skin on the outside and soft, juicy meat on the inside!" A few more minutes and it was done, ready to be plated. In a minute, four servings were placed on the table along with some rice and miso soup while Daichi and Neptune walked in with the stuntman holding Mr. Belt. "Great timing, you two! Go on, dig in!"

"OOOHH!" Neptune was more than impressed, seeing how nice and crisp the fish looked.

"Smells good, eh?" The redhead looked proud of herself while Neptune immediately took her place at the table and took a bite.

"Hot hot!"

"Don't rush your food, Onee-chan!" scolded Nepgear while passing a cup of black coffee to Daichi who put down the Driver on the kitchen counter and took a sip of the brew.

"Ah… not too bad for coffee in another dimension!"

"Heeeh…?" Uzume looked at his cup for a moment before glancing up at Nepgear. "Oi… gimme a cup too."

"You drink this as well?" asked Neptune in between bites of food.

"O-of course! I mean… I gotta have something strong in me so that I got energy for the day!"

"You stumbled there for a bit, Uzume-san." Daichi sipped his drink again and then turned his head to Nepgear. "You might want to get some sugar for her, Nepgear. She can probably handle it if it's sweetened a bit."

"Ooh… gonna make it sweet so that a kid would like it?" clarified Neptune which got under Uzume's skin.

"Hey, I'm not a kid! I'll show you!" As soon as Nepgear poured the redhead a cup, she swiped it from the other girl and took one sip before her face twisted at the extreme taste. "UGH! This is so bitter!"

"Seriously, what are you doing?" asked Mr. Belt with a slightly exasperated look as everyone took their place at the breakfast table.

"Dammit! One day… I'll be able to drink black coffee easily! Just you wait!"

A simultaneous 'yeah yeah' came from the others before they began eating. After a few bites, Nepgear paused to ask Uzume something while Daichi went to get a second cup of coffee. "Um, Uzume-san… me and my sister were talking and we were wondering about a few things."

"Like what, Geacchi?"

"Well, you're a Goddess right? That means there should be a landmass that you governed and protected once before the Dark Goddesses came. Can you tell us about it?" asked the young lady politely just as Neptune butted in.

"Ooh, I also wanna know! I said this before but I'm the Goddess of Planeptune, the most rad place in Gamindustri!"

"… rad?" Mr. Belt was puzzled at her choice of language.

"Also, do you have an Oracle like Histy? Or even your own little sis who's also a Goddess Candidate?"

Uzume tried to open her mouth to answer those questions but nothing came out. She stood there silently, biting her lip. "… I can't remember."

"Neppu?! Are we really rehashing that plot again?!" complained Neptune, much to Daichi's puzzlement.

"What are you talking about?"

Of course, he went ignored while Nepgear leaned in a bit closer. "What do you remember?"

"I feel like I should remember some of the stuff you guys are saying. I mean, it sounds like it rings a bell but I honestly can't remember. I don't have a lot of memories. Just waking up and fighting the Dark Goddesses. I didn't even find my Share Crystal myself. It was by chance that some of my little buddies showed it to me," answered the redhead in a glum tone which got the stuntman concerned.

"Don't you have any happy memories at all?"

Uzume took a moment to think about it before a soft smile came to her face. "I remember once having a delicious crepe with all the toppings. It was really large, much bigger than I expected."

'A happy memory based on food? I guess it's better than nothing,' thought Mr. Belt to himself.

"And then…!" As soon as Uzume's tone changed, everyone else present looked on in absolute shock as she sounded cutesy and bubbly, exactly like her Goddess form. Her eyes were closed tightly as she went off in her own little world. "... I thought 'is this the one they call 128 bit impact'? It was four scoops of ice cream stuffed right in the crepe… it's like having four 32 bit CPUs! It definitely gave a super cute, Uzume like feeling and was so sweet and delicious! Ahh~!"

And just like that, Daichi, Neptune, Nepgear and Mr. Belt gave a drawn out "… eeeehhhh?" in response to this bizarre behaviour from their companion.

"Eh…?"

"Uzume-san, what's with your tone?" asked Nepgear who still looked weirded out.

"My tone? Ahem!" Uzume finally snapped back to reality and cleared her throat. "Aside from that, I really can't think of-"

"What was that?! Seriously, what was that?!" pointed out Neptune.

"It's n-nothing! It's just your imagination from waking up in a whole new place! Ahahahaha…!"

Obviously nobody bought it but considering how desperately Uzume wanted to drop the subject, they decided to move the conversation topic with Neptune resuming questioning. "So who exactly are your little buddies anyway?"

"They usually hang out with Umio. I'll show them to ya when we meet up with him in person."

"What other memories do you have? Do you know about other landmasses beside this place?" asked Nepgear.

"I know that there are other landmasses but I can't remember what they were like. I think one of them is pretty advanced with tech. Might have what you need to return you to your world," answered Uzume which got the hopes up of her companions.

"Really?! Oooh… I can't wait to get home! I miss my pudding already!"

The redhead bit into her breakfast. "Well, it's a bit of a long shot, Neppuchi. From what I remember, that tech country is located beyond the sea. You're gonna need an aircraft or some ship to make that trip and a lot of luck to avoid being noticed by the Dark Goddesses."

"It's at least something," mumbled Mr. Belt. "Perhaps after breakfast, after we make a brief detour, we can look around the city and see if there's anything we can salvage. We might be able to craft something."

"What detour do you need to make, Belt-san?" asked Nepgear.

"One of the Shift Cars did some scouting and detected an item. We should at least check it out. Daichi, once you've finished eating, can we head to the crafting area? I have a hypothesis to test."

"What hypothesis?" asked the stuntman. "Is this going to be a time consuming scientific experiment?"

"It's nothing complicated. We won't even need a lab for this test."

* * *

Speaking of laboratories…

"Mm-hmm!" A male figure in a Mech Suit hummed to himself as he put the finishing touches on his latest project in his work space. He wore his typical mechanical suit which is cranberry jello pink in colour with several other parts on his shoulders, arms, legs, back, and feet that are green in colour and glowing. He also has a hint of yellow-orange on his suit in the mid-torso and arm regions.

"I wonder what I should do with this thing." Honestly, Anonydeath had been pondering what to do ever since fixing up Mr. Badd's girls. While he did hear that Rei restarted the Seven Sages group for the sake of the Goddesses, he wasn't interested in going back. So for almost three years, he had been engaged in cyber vigilantism but any satisfaction he got from that hardly lasted. It was only within the past few months that he recovered an interesting set of blueprints on the web for some mechanical humanoid warrior powered by wind.

The new project had kept him busy for a good while and now it's almost ready to throw the switch. He looked to the robot lying on the operating table. It wore a green pilot suit with brown gloves and black boots. There was also a piece of brown chest armour resembling masculine pectorals. His head resembled a fusion of a brown pilot helmet and an insect with red optics and antenna. There was a sculpted mouth out of grey metal as well, secured by a gold metal strap. A small white scarf hung around the neck, most of it tucked beneath the chest armour. Finally, around his waist was a belt which was inactive right now and displayed a picture of an eagle in the centre portion.

"Hmmm… should I give this to Rei-chan? She could use an extra pair of hands." Anonydeath paused for a moment. "Or perhaps Noire-chan? She needs to have her own robot to compete with Lowee's robotic servant… although that might be a tad bit too much. This guy's on a whole new level."

He would have to figure it out later. Right now, he had to iron out any bugs and do some test runs before delivering this present to whomever he decided would have it. With the flick of a switch, the hacker activated the power source which sent a surge of energy into the body. The centre of the belt opened up to reveal a fan while the red optics on the head glowed once.

"Oh ho…? You're awake?" Anonydeath scooted over to the body of the machine and hovered over the head area. "How do you feel?"

"… So their power won out in the end? Hehehe…" There was a brief moment of silence before the machine sat upright and one of his arms shot out to grab the hacker by the neck, holding it tightly.

"K-keh?!" In a nanosecond, Anonydeath tried sending the signal to force an emergency shutdown but his display only read…

 **FOREIGN SIGNAL REJECTED. KAMEN RIDER YONGOU SYSTEM ONLINE.**

'Kamen Rider Yongou?! How…?!'

While the hacker tried to figure out what to do and how to handle this situation, Yongou merely drew him closer until both helmets were nearly touching. "Tell me… where is he?"

Anonydeath managed to squeak out one word. "W-who?"

"Kamen Rider Drive… the one who carved the meaning of defeat into me. Where is he?"

 **LEVEL 8 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **Another one put to rest. Most of the kitchen scene was inspired from translations of the Uzume portion of the Neptune VII Drama CD where she basically spends a whole day with the listener. Finally, the last scene is to kick off what is happening in the Ultradimension and ultimately, this will give me an excuse to bring Iris Heart and anyone else from the Ultradimension cast into things. While I do understand that Compile Heart had project and resource limitations, you figure that they would have done a bit more with Ultradimension characters in VII. Hopefully, I can do things better but we'll see. I could have made this into yet another separate spinoff but I decided that wouldn't be needed. Otherwise, my muse would be too tired from juggling multiple entries in this crossover.**

 **For those who aren't aware, Idol Jigen Gaiden Mach is up and running. To everyone who submitted an entry, please follow that story as I start going through auditions!**


	9. Who Will Guide Nitroplus-chan's Justice?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Ninth Level – Who Will Guide Nitroplus-chan's Justice?**

"Hmmm… I had been hoping that I would have been wrong on this," mumbled Mr. Belt.

"That's 500 credits well spent," said Daichi dryly while holding a single red Shift Car in the palm of his hand, freshly crafted.

As Mr. Belt had said, the test didn't take long. The hypothesis had been to check if the normal Shift Speed Car would still be able to function normally. Even if they only had the Proto Tridoron which couldn't summon Shift Tires, having a backup in case the Shift Speed Prototype car got damaged would be handy. Unfortunately, the normal Shift Speed Car needed to have either the Tridoron or some other vehicle which could summon Shift Tires to function properly.

"On the plus side, at least it isn't something that would cost a huge amount of resources to craft. Also, we would have had to eventually craft it anyway."

The stuntman grunted once in agreement before hearing the commotion outside. After securing Mr. Belt to his waist, he caught up with the others and could clearly see Nepgear with her handheld device and a cable connected to it. "What's happening?"

"I managed to connect to the internet and obtain a map. The data's been damaged though so I'm running a software tool to repair what I can," answered the younger of the two purple haired siblings.

"Oooohh, I knew we can depend on ya! You're totally super-duper dependable in times like these!" exclaimed Neptune.

"I really hope we can get something useful," muttered Uzume. "A lot of servers are busted so I doubt that the World Wide Web is functioning properly."

"That may be true but the Basilicom servers are still running as well as public organization servers. That's where I'm getting the map data." A thought came to Nepgear. "Maybe we can connect Belt-san directly and upload him so he can navigate through cyberspace. He'll probably be able to search better than I can."

"Uh… that's…" Daichi tried to think of a way to politely shoot down that idea but Mr. Belt beat him to it.

The face image on the Driver changed briefly to a serious frowny one. "If I'm uploaded as you suggest, then the Drive Driver will be unable to function properly. And considering the danger that the Dark Goddesses present, I refuse to leave my partner vulnerable."

Just as he finished that sentence, a beeping from Uzume's device got everyone's attention. "Sorry, gotta take this."

Once the channel was open, the same deep voice they heard yesterday came through. _"Uzume, are you there?"_

"Yeah, what's up? You don't usually call this early, Umio," chirped the redhead.

" _True. I just wanted to check that you were still with us. I had been concerned that the Dark Goddess could have…"_

"Sure the giant's still out there but I ain't biting the dust yet. Come on, you know me better than that!"

A deep chuckle came from the other side. _"Indeed. Let me get right to business. You remember how we've evacuated to the next town over? Apparently the Baby Bugs who live here have located a Share Crystal. I was quite surprised."_

"Ehhhh?!" In an instant, both Neptune and Nepgear were paying real close attention to the conversation, crowding around Uzume's personal space much to her discomfort.

" _Don't get too excited yet. I need to check on the authenticity of the report."_

"R-right… thanks for the heads up."

" _I'll be in touch."_ And with that, the call ended and Uzume stretched for a bit while making sure she got some breathing distance from the other two girls.

"Alright! Let's get to this! I've gotta go on patrol and make my rounds!"

"Rounds?" asked Nepgear.

"Even if the giant's not here, there are still dangerous monsters that run around. So I beat up the big troublemakers to ensure everyone's safety," explained Uzume before something else came to her. "Oh yeah, you said there's an item that one of those little cars found?"

" _Correct._ Just a moment." With that, the Funky Spike Shift Car flew into view and landed in Daichi's Shift Brace before the wrist accessory projected an image of a map with a sign clearly marked. "It should be located here."

"I recognize the street design. We'll be able to swing by that area since it's a part of my patrol route. Neppuchi, Geacchi… you two coming?"

"Sure! Not like I can do much here anyway," chirped Neptune in her usual carefree manner. "I'll need to get a replacement sword though."

"I'll come too. Maybe I'll find something interesting along the way. Just like how that Quest led us to finding that Shift Car yesterday!" With that, Nepgear deactivated her N-Gear mini console and disconnected the cable.

"Alrighty… let's head out then!"

* * *

"Unnngghhh… where…? Where am I? What just happened?"

The last thing the girl remembered was leaving Piicii Continent to chase after Horyuchu and shut down the pirated game circle that he ran. From the information that she had gathered, he and his followers were all fleeing to Leanbox to begin operations again. But just as she began her journey, she found herself in a totally new realm which appeared to be barely holding itself together.

"This place scares me, niku…" She glanced down at her partner, an animated piece of raw meat named Raw Meat. "Nitroplus… how are we going to get back, niku?"

"I'll think of something," responded the fair-skinned girl with large, royal blue eyes. Her hair was long and grey with the top portion resembling Neptune's but grown out to hip length. She wore a white corset top with a black ribbon tied up in the centre which held the top together with a bow. It is worn with a black jacket with a large white cross design at the end of each sleeve, with the lapel lined in white and white frills sticking out of the cuff.

Her skirt is a thick striping of black and grey with white frills lining the hem and a black belt held by a grey clasp. She had grey shoes with a cross design, worn with a pair of black and white leg warmers with a pair of white and black striped stockings. Around her neck is a pair of black and red headphones. Finally on the left side of her head was a small accessory that resembled a miniature flame.

As she began to look around the empty street, she spotted something coming her way. It was a group of creatures that looked like lizard wearing some sort of strange armour and wielding axes and shields and from the way they moved, they obviously weren't friendly.

"Wah! We got company, niku! They look hungry, niku!" Yes, those three Lizardmen looked mighty hungry by the way they stared at Raw Meat.

"Get somewhere safe. I'll take care of them," said Nitroplus calmly before whipping out her red katana and her pistol. In a moment, she sprinted towards the group, using her agility to avoid their wide attacks with their respective weapons.

"Where there is injustice, I will cut it down." She leapt on the flat edge of one axe and aimed her pistol down before firing a few shots in the head of the first enemy causing it to fall flat on its belly against the pavement.

"Even if God is unjust, I will cut Him down." Her right hand tossed her katana up so she could switch grips from a normal one to a reverse one. After spinning around to dodge another axe attack, she buried her sword into the creature's side and cut upwards to bring down enemy number two.

'Only one left now.' Quickly placing away her pistol, her free hand began to charge itself up with energy and unleashed a barrage of fireballs against the last one while her sword began powering up as well for the final blow.

"True justice is at the tip of my blade."

But before she could go for her finishing move, a barrage of shots from behind her blasted the last enemy into oblivion much to her surprise. This was accompanied by the noise of something coming to a stop and a cold masculine voice from behind her.

"True justice? How arrogant of you to make such a claim. Justice doesn't take a single form."

Nitroplus turned around to see a black and blue vehicle which had been armed with some cannon earlier along with someone exiting the vehicle. "You are…?"

The figure clad in a black and blue racing suit simply stared at her. Although she couldn't pick up his facial features behind his racing helmet, the way he spoke suggested that he was rather upset. "I was going to sit back and observe how you handled those enemies but hearing that little justice speech of yours riled me up some. Your blade represents true justice? Don't make me laugh!"

"Who is this guy, niku?" Raw Meat slowly came out of its hiding place which caused the figure to react strangely upon seeing it.

"… Now there's something you don't see every day," muttered the young man. "An intelligent piece of raw meat?"

"Raw Meat, get back while I slay this evil!" She quickly armed her free hand with her pistol again while keeping one eye on this stranger at all times.

"Hoh? You already judge me as evil simply because I question your justice?" He briefly ducked back into the car to retrieve something.

"It has nothing to do with that. I simply trust my instincts," retorted Nitroplus. "And every fiber of my body is telling me that you're aligned with evil!"

In a moment, the racer came back out with an object attached to his waist and a bracelet accessory on his left wrist. "In that case, I'm not going to bother wasting any more time on words."

This was followed by the sound of an engine turning itself on and three words from the belt.

 _ **START OUR MISSION.**_

"Henshin."

One Shift Car insertion later into the Shift Brace and he became covered in his dark suit with blue bodylines all over. His vehicle then reacted by first drawing its left front wheel in and formed the Shift Tire. Then it ejected the Shift Tire by using its left wheel to push it out so that it can attach to the newly transformed male.

 _ **DRIVE! TYPE… NEXT!**_

His Shift Tire flashed yellow once before generating a small black weapon in his hand, known as the Blade Gunner. It resembled a fusion of a knuckle and a gun but with a blade sticking out at the top.

"Now then… who will guide your justice? Your blade or your bullets?"

* * *

"Whew, that's all from that batch," muttered Uzume while wiping a bit of sweat off her brow as the last Pixelvader fell over in defeat. "You're a better fighter than you let on, Neppuchi."

Neptune grinned and proudly showed off her newly acquired Bamboo Sword, the item that had been detected by the Shift Car earlier. At least it's an improvement over the Wooden Katana. "A skilled hawk hides its talons. Any good item drops in there from those pixel guys?"

"Dunno. Don't take too long searching though. We gotta meet up with Geacchi and Daichi later."

"Aye aye!"

While Neptune shifted through the rubble for any goodies, Nepgear and Daichi were off in another area with the girl trying to connect to the internet and once again, her N-Gear was attached to a wire. "Haa… it's pretty inconvenient having to connect to the internet through a public phone. Maybe I can build a few wireless devices and set them up around the city."

"Would you even have enough time to take on such a project?" asked Mr. Belt.

"Probably not," admitted the younger sibling before her device picked up something. "This is…"

"What is it?" Daichi looked over but only saw bits and pieces of a report while multiple sections looked warped out.

"… did the report file get degraded or something? Let's see if I can repair it." While Nepgear fiddled around, she heard her older sister call out to her.

"Oiii! Let's get ready to go back!"

Daichi looked up to see both Neptune and Uzume approaching. "Any good loot?"

"No good loot. Only these." The smaller purple haired girl held out her hand and produced two pieces of Scrap Metal. To be precise, Limousine Scrap Metal which he would need to craft Shift Dream Vegas and Ambulance Scrap Metal which will be handy in crafting Shift Mad Doctor.

"Hey, unlike you, I actually need those for crafting more Shift Cars!" complained the stuntman.

"Then I'll sell these to you! How about both for a total of 500 credits? Great deal, eh?" Neptune had her sales pitch going on which Daichi wasn't buying.

"I can't believe you! Even after we located that Bamboo Sword and gave it to you for free-!"

"Fine… instead of credits, how about I restore your flag raising privileges with me? You're still gonna need more stuff to fully unlock the Neptune route though," chirped the small purple haired girl.

"This is highly inappropriate, Neptune!" Mr. Belt wasn't able to get far into his rant when he was interrupted by Uzume's wrist device beeping again.

"Ah, it's Umio!" The redhead pressed a button to open the channel. "What's up? You got any news on the Share Crystal?"

" _Yes, the legitimacy of the Share Crystal has been verified. It's quite remarkable. I never would have expected a Share Crystal in this location. Anyways, now that I have it in my possession, I'll be heading back to you within the day-"_

His voice got suddenly cut off and some odd noises were heard coming from the other end which alarmed Uzume. "Umio?!"

" _W-Who are you?! Aaaauuughhh!"_

And with that, the channel went dead while Neptune went ahead and stated the obvious. "That's bad, isn't it?"

"Of course it's bad!" retorted Nepgear.

"I need to save Umio!" It could clearly be seen in Uzume's expression that she was deeply worried for her friend.

"No problem. We'll all go there together." Daichi summoned the Proto Tridoron which also had the storage wagon to seat cargo and additional passengers since the vehicle only had seating for two. In a moment, they were off following Uzume's directions to the next town to begin searching for Umio's whereabouts.

* * *

'I wonder where Nep-chan vanished…'

She had been in the mood to play and have a picnic with her friend but when she crossed over to the Hyperdimension to locate Neptune for some fun, she found something unsettling. The whole atmosphere in the nation felt a bit off to her. She didn't like it one bit.

The Histoire over there explained it as the Shift Period while she was in the middle of working on something.

" _During this time, it's the season when the citizens begin searching for new Goddesses to follow instead of placing their faith in the ones that are already presiding. Rumours will begin circulating, tarnishing the reputations of the Goddesses."_

Of course, by the time Histoire finished that explanation, the Oracle noticed that Neptune had vanished along with Nepgear from the Hyperdimension. After all, if Plutia was in town, there was no way Neptune wouldn't miss out on hanging with her. So she immediately had to put a stop to her work to begin searching for the two and considering the timing of the disappearance right when the Shift Period is about to begin, it could put Planeptune in a bit of a bind.

Plutia would have stayed to help but she couldn't get focused on the task when the citizens in the city were spreading those upsetting words around. She opted to just go back home and let the Histoire in the Hyperdimension do that job. That oracle's far more efficient at these types of things anyway.

That meant she would have to invite someone else to go on that picnic since she did pack quite a bit of treats in the basket. Thankfully, Peashy gladly accepted that invitation. Though to be honest, she probably only accepted just to gorge on the Nep Pudding packed in the basket.

"Neptuna's not coming?" The blonde little girl already took pudding number one. She had short hair with some oversized hair bobbles on top and wore a yellow and black striped jacket with a tail along with a pair of shorts and sneakers. She also wears paw gloves over her hands which made it a bit startling to see how she held her spoon and pudding so well.

"Sadly no~" Plutia's outfit couldn't be considered normal. In fact, they looked like pajamas. She has long, light purple hair in a braid to the back and a light pink frill ribbon tied to it. Her eyes are magenta in color and she had a white choker around her neck. Her dress is teal with a mix of pink, white, and light orange with thigh high socks and pink bear slippers to match.

"Then can we go get Papa and Mama?"

Plutia had to think about that. Peashy's foster mother usually stayed busy with work but certainly she would make time for a picnic. It could be tougher to find the foster father but maybe Rei had an idea on his whereabouts. "Well, we can-"

She was interrupted by something slamming on the ground next to her: an individual in a damaged red mechanical suit and part of the helmet busted open which revealed a bit of hair and a small part of the man's facial features.

Peashy's eyes widened in horror upon seeing this sight. "PAPA!"

While the little girl scrambled to reach her foster father and dropped her pudding in the process, someone else swooped in from the sky with a wingsuit active and when he got close to the ground, he retracted the wingsuit, allowing himself to land without an issue before turning his red optics towards the purple haired girl. "That man Anonydeath told me that you're the Goddess of this region. Then surely you would know the answer to my question. Where is Kamen Rider Drive?"

Peashy ignored the question. In fact, seeing her foster father in bad shape caused her to transform into her Yellow Heart form to get him help. Her hair grew in length, making it past her shoulders. She not only became taller but her breasts also grew significantly in size to the point of being larger than Green Heart's. Her outfit got replaced by a white, skintight bodysuit with matching thigh-high boots and a choker, all three decorated with traces of black, red, and yellow. "Hang on, Papa!"

"I dunno who this Drive is but you made P-chan cry~" As soon as Yellow Heart got Anonydeath far away from the area, Plutia's eyes narrowed before a light bathed over her body while she activated her transformation, emerging out of the light with a more mature body and an appearance akin to a dominatrix. Her hair was now iris blue while her eyes turn into a slightly darker shade of magenta. She had a black, one piece bodysuit with high heels and traces of magenta on the legs, torso, and arms which is also accompanied by a set of matching earrings and a choker. Mechanical butterfly wings were seen attached to her back and the doll that she typically carried and used as a weapon while in her normal form changed into a black and red futuristic sword. "Don't think that you'll be walking away intact!"

"Hoh... so this is the power of a Goddess? Interesting..." The intruder merely brought one gloved hand to his chin. "Let's see what you're made of then!"

 **LEVEL 9 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **Finally got my writing muse into gear for my first 2016 update. You can blame my video muse for holding the writing muse hostage for a while. On the bright side, now that Megadimension Neptunia VII is released, I can better script things and plan chapter content.**

 **Also brought in Nitroplus. My plans for her aren't as extensive as God Eater-chan but I'll see what I can do.**


	10. Who Does Raw Meat Fear the Most?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Neptunia or Kamen Rider. I only own my original character.**

 **Tenth Level - Who Does Raw Meat Fear the Most?**

'Just what is he?!'

For Nitroplus, she rarely lost her composure. Back in her home continent, she grew up having faced a fair share of powerful challenges. While the monsters there were more durable and powerful compared to her, she always had been able to make use of her skill set and her wits to wear them down and defeat them. But those were creatures with primitive thinking patterns. Their attacks were straightforward and once their patterns were deciphered, it had been fairly easy to come up with a counterattack.

The mission to capture Horyuchu had been Nitroplus' first real mission in whom she had to deal with a cunning adversary and every time, he had been able to slip past her. She never had a chance to fight against him directly although she doubted he would have had a chance against her if they dueled one on one. He didn't look like a warrior. After all, his body was that of a businessman with a business formal suit and tie. But the fact remained that despite all her efforts, she never truly cornered that rat so Horyuchu's ability to fight never really mattered at that point.

What did matter was that up until now, she never truly faced an enemy who possessed both the power and durability of the monsters she grew up fighting along with a fair degree of intelligence. Now here she was in an encounter she wasn't sure she could get out of.

Based on the first few clashes, Nitroplus could tell that she was his better when it came to combat arts. While he did appear to have had some training, her skills had been developed almost as soon as she could walk. But his armour essentially allowed him to shrug off any damage from her sword, her offensive magic and her bullets. If he wanted to, he could have used easily landed a few damaging blows while she was still in a recovery position. The only thing that seemed to be keeping her healthy was that the warrior always seemed to pause after each blow he took from her. As if evaluating something in his head.

Then it hit her. "You're treating this as a training exercise…!"

"Good observation. It's true you know… after all, I really don't have any good training partners on my end. Except for my partner Kurome but she's busy with a lot of things recently." He twirled around his combat weapon briefly. "What can I do? Gotta get in my training somehow. Never know when someone will come along and actually be able to keep up with Dark Drive's power."

'If it wasn't for that armour of yours, you would be treating this a lot more seriously,' came the young lady's sour thought while she ran things in her head again. It wasn't as if he was entirely nullifying her attacks but they just weren't packing enough of a punch to affect him. So right now, it's an issue of strength as far as she knew. And that meant only someone like a Goddess would be able to seriously damage him.

Her only option at this point was to escape. She wasn't sure if she would be able to outrun him. No, the moment she tried to make a break for it, he would chase her down in that vehicle of his. She needed to disorient him and vanish from his sight before he recovered. 'Alright, I can do this…'

"Anyways, let's resume where we left off, shall we?" And in a flash, the armoured warrior fired a few shots from his weapon but Nitroplus countered by shooting her pistol a few times so that she would be able to nullify his shots. This resulted in a small but powerful explosion that blinded Dark Drive's visual sensors briefly and was enough for Nitroplus to close the gap. The next thing he knew, she was right in his face with her right hand wielding a rather huge chainsaw at maximum settings.

"HAAAAA!"

"Are you serious?!" On instinct, he threw away his weapon so he could have both hands free and brought them forward to catch the cutting chain's sides. The edges of the blades were making repeated contact with his armoured forearms which kept causing sparks to fly in his helmet.

"Now!" At that moment, Nitroplus released her grip on the chainsaw while Dark Drive heard a series of beeps. Just as he recognized what had happened, the weapon exploded right in front of him, sending him stumbling back a brief bit.

'She resorted to a desperation attack, huh?' The armoured figure scanned the immediate vicinity and sure enough, that girl and her animated raw meat friend were nowhere to be found. He reached for one of his Shift Cars and held it up to his eye visor. "Go catch up to her, will ya?"

A series of affirmative honks came from the small car.

"One more thing: try to bring her in unharmed and without having to resort to Slowdown. If you have to rough her up a bit, then you can do so but no lethal force."

There was a pause before he heard another series of affirmative honks.

"Good girl." With that, he tossed Shift Next Hunter into the air before it took off on its own, generating a miniature road to travel on. After it vanished from his sight, he heard the sound of machinery being shifted before a police siren wailed through the air. Within seconds, he was treated to the sight of a repaired and upgraded Planeptune police cruiser which drove into a direction in pursuit of Nitroplus.

* * *

"Umio should be around here somewhere," muttered Uzume as she stepped out of the Proto Tridoron at the outskirts of the Northern Town. It had only been a short drive, less than thirty minutes.

"Somewhere…? He didn't tell you his exact location?" asked Nepgear while her sister brought her hands up and cupped them around her mouth to form a 'megaphone'

"OOIIIII, UMIO! GIVE US A SHOUT IF YOU'RE HERE!"

While his hearing recovered from Neptune's sudden shouting, an idea came to Daichi. "Hm, this might be a good time to make use of our friends. What do you say, Belt-san?"

" _Agreed_." A few honks and beeps later and the three Shift Cars assembled on the ground right in front. "Go forth, my friends and search for clues that can help locate Uzume's comrade."

While the three took off on their own miniature roads to Nepgear's amazement, Uzume began to grumble a bit. "I wish our communication didn't get cut short. It would be cool if we found someone who could point us in the right direction."

"I don't think rescue missions are that convenient," said the stuntman in a deadpan tone.

"Hey, you never know! There could be a few mystery bystanders who were hanging with Umio when he got attacked! Then they could have escaped from the attacker! And then while they wander around looking for us, we'll just happen to run into them!"

Uzume's tone got higher which Neptune easily noticed. "She's doing it again! That's the second time today! Does she have a quota or something for channeling 90s Valley Girl speak?!"

Yep, Uzume was off in her own fantasy world, speaking in her Orange Heart cutesy voice. "We'll be totally surprised at the coincidence and, like, both Uzume and her pal totally won't be able to believe it, ya know? Then just like that, they'll lead us to where Umio is and we'll, like, beat up the meany monsters that were bullying Umio! Umio's saved, we find the Share Crystal and we'll be like super lucky like that!"

"Uzume-san, please come back to reality," said Mr. Belt in an exasperated tone. And just like that, Uzume snapped out of it and tried to cover things up with a cough.

"So… uh, yeah. There's a small chance that someone could pop up and show us the way."

"You have got to be kidding me." But just as those words came out of Daichi's mouth, the three Shift Cars returned with a small cute monster following them. It looked like a piece of fried shrimp with claws, walking legs like a crab and black beady eyes.

"What is this?" asked Mr. Belt before hearing the various honks and beeps of the Shift Cars. "You're saying that this fellow knows what happened to Umio?"

"Wow, what are the odds of such a convenient plot development?" chirped Neptune. "Then again, nobody should be too surprised. This is all because of my main character powers!"

"Even though Daichi-san seems to be the protagonist?" asked Nepgear.

"Pfft! He may be protagonist of this story but we all know who the main character of main characters is!"

'And there they go again. Such weird siblings,' thought the stuntman to himself.

"Uzume-san!" Interestingly, the voice came from the monster itself. "Umio got attacked by a monster and it's awful! I'll show you the way so please hurry!"

While it went on ahead, Uzume turned to the others. "Let's follow Baby Bug and see where he takes us!"

Eventually the party found themselves in a large open space that looked like a subway concourse. It reminded Daichi of Toei Subway's Shinjuku station and he spotted a transit system map which identified their location.

'Coral Station, huh? I guess this world has its own subway system as well.' There were small signs of damage in the area like a few broken signs and some shattered glass.

"So this Umio's somewhere around here?" Mr. Belt began scanning the surroundings for any clues.

"Yes! My friends and I were originally using this place as our house! We happened to find something that looked like a Share Crystal in the back and asked Umio to take a look. But while that was happening, a monster we never saw before suddenly appeared…" Baby Bug looked a little down. "I hope Umio's okay."

"Umio said that the Share Crystal found was the real deal. Can you confirm if this is the case?" asked Nepgear.

"Of course! Right now, Umio's holding on to it so the monster won't destroy it," replied the friendly monster.

"Good to know. Let's start looking!" But just as Neptune took a step forward, Mr. Belt called out to her.

"Wait! I'm picking up various enemies littered around the area."

"Then we'll just beat the snot out of them!" For emphasis, the small purple haired girl waved around her Bamboo Sword which merely caused Mr. Belt to sigh in irritation before replying to her.

"Considering that there is a very dangerous enemy ahead who attacked Umio, the best course of action would be to conserve stamina for that critical confrontation."

"Wait, we have to worry about getting tired and all that stuff? That never happened in our games before! Are we using mechanics from 'I Am Alive' or something?"

The device's facial plate blinked a few times in confusion. "… I have no idea what you're talking about. In any case, I suggest we make use of the Shift Cars and their ability to cause Heavy Acceleration. It'll allow us to move through this subway station and minimize our chance of enemy encounters."

"Just like that? That's rather convenient," muttered Daichi.

"Unless the enemy monsters and machines have exteriors made out of grey matter, we should be safe," clarified the scientist.

"Wait, those big giant machines are grey in colour!" protested Neptune.

"When I say grey matter, I'm referring to the material that makes up the cerebral cortex and not the armour colour. It protects against Slowdown."

"I dunno all that stuff you're saying but the basic gist is that your plan is gonna help us reach Umio faster, right? Then let's go for it!" exclaimed Uzume after hearing Mr. Belt's explanation.

"In that case, I should suit up as a precaution just in case we do run into enemies that can resist the Heaviness." With that, Daichi turned on the ignition of his belt and slotted in the Proto Speed Shift Car into his Shift Brace. "Henshin!"

 ** _DRIVE! TYPE… SPEED!_**

* * *

"Was it okay back there? You blew up your special chainsaw just like that, niku."

"It's fine!" panted Nitroplus as she continued sprinting to get as far away from Dark Drive as possible with Raw Meat tucked underneath her right armpit. "It'll be troublesome to get a new one specifically tuned to my liking but at the end of the day, it is replaceable."

"So… now what, niku?" asked Raw Meat while the girl came to stop at a traffic intersection in the middle of a deserted financial district.

"We need to find a place to rest and find out what happened to Gamindustri. Maybe we can locate a Basilicom or…" She got cut off as she spotted a police car on patrol. "Over there!"

In a few seconds, she had managed to get the driver's attention which brought the vehicle to a stop. The door on the driver's side opened to reveal a female police officer in a blue dress jacket over a white dress shirt and a black clip on tie. Her black hair was tied in a tight bun with a small blue hat on top of her head. Her lower half was covered with a skirt the same colour as her jacket and dark stockings. Finally, her feet were covered with what appeared to be steel toed safety boots.

"We're saved, niku! Ms. Police Officer will help us, niku!" cheered on Raw Meat.

This good mood didn't last long as the police woman brought up a pair of handcuffs, prompting a startled look from Nitroplus. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm taking you in," came the cold reply. "You're trespassing in an area that's off limits to civilians."

"W-wait…! I didn't know that I was in an illegal area! I just got dropped-"

Nitroplus was cut off by the police woman. " _Ignorantia legis neminem excusat._ It means 'ignorance of the law excuses no one.'"

"Hold on a sec!" Just as the police woman tried to arrest her, Nitroplus got out of the way which caused something to spill out of her jacket. She managed to catch her gun in time but obviously, this didn't go unnoticed.

"I see I'll have to add a charge of illegal possession of a firearm as well. If you refuse to cooperate, I will resort to using force to subdue you and add a charge of resisting arrest."

"Seriously?!" Nitroplus continued to avoid the arrest attempts and backed up until she found her back against a brick wall. "Hold up a second!"

But all her protest did was cause the other woman to place the handcuffs away and get into her stance with her right foot slowly circling once on the ground.

"Rider… Kick."

"Wah!" The young lady managed to get out of the way as the police officer's right foot came up in a semi-circular motion in an attempt to land a roundhouse kick. The boot ended up smashing through part of a building's edge and caused some debris to land in her long hair. By instinct, Nitroplus brought one hand up to clear out what she could off her head. "This will be so hard to wash out!"

"That logo, niku!" Raw Meat pointed at the outsole of the boots which had a crest imprinted. The crest consisted of a stylized 'R' nestled between the top and bottom half of a circle which brings to mind a steering wheel. "It's the same logo as the one on that helmet! The helmet of the guy you fought, niku!"

"Then… you're an ally of Dark Drive's?!" As soon as Nitroplus registered that fact, she leapt backwards to avoid another kick from the police woman before making a run for it down the empty street.

"What do we do, niku?" asked Raw Meat in a scared tone as the girl continued to sprint.

"I dunno but…" Just as soon as she stepped on the road of another intersection, she heard the sound of a motorcycle coming to a very abrupt stop along with screeching tires. It startled her so much that she collapsed to the ground in shock. 'I… I could have died if that motorcycle hit me!'

She looked at the vehicle that stopped and saw a large silver skull accessory in the centre of the black and purple flamed paint job on the front frame. Then she heard someone get off the motorcycle, a male figure dressed entirely in purple. A black helmet with purple flames painted on it covered his head.

"She's here, niku!" wailed Raw Meat as the police woman finally caught up.

"Now I have you!" She stopped when she saw that there was someone else in person. "Are you an ally of hers?"

There was a slow pause as the motorcyclist removed his helmet to reveal a handsome face which immediately zoomed in on the officer. "Shijima… Kiriko?"

Her eyes slightly widened in surprise before she replied. "How do you know that name? Who are you?!"

'Did she arrive here like me and lost a significant portion of her memory? Or maybe…' He contemplated things for a moment before he took something out of his pocket: a photo card that granted him the license to carry different types of weapons across all regions of Gamarket.

'His name is… Chase?' Nitroplus could also see how the picture of him had him smiling… which really contrasted his current frowning facial expression.

"Do you recall when you assisted me in getting my license before I departed for Lastation?" asked Chase coolly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Without warning, the human form of the police woman vanished and was replaced with a mechanical humanoid body. Multiple red wires converged to the chest plate which only showed "-". The top part of the head appeared like a skull while the bottom part of the head was mechanical with miniature claws that resembled the anatomy of a spider jaw.

"A Spider-Type Roidmude?!" More questions came to Chase's mind. 'How does this Roidmude not have an identification number? Or… was this a Roidmude built by someone else other than Banno?'

"You know about Roidmudes? In that case… I'm taking you in as well!" The Spider-Type Roidmude leaned back for a moment before spitting out a large spider web from its mouth in an attempt to bind the man dressed in purple but he rolled out of the way, switching out his license for the Break Gunner before pressing his palm against the nozzle.

 ** _BREAK UP!_**

As his transformation was completed, Raw Meat shivered in fear as one name came to mind to describe what he saw. "A… Grim Reaper, niku…!"

He couldn't tell who was worse: the Death God or the monster disguised as a police woman.

 **LEVEL 10 COMPLETE. PROGRESS SAVED.**

* * *

 **Finally got my muse to work and get something out. Life had been busy for me at the office during most of February and all of March but here you go.**

 **So more ground work laid out to show that there are other active Drive characters but in the alternate universe where Chase originated from. And yes, there's a Banno too. Will he hijack the show like he did in Drive? Who knows.**


End file.
